694 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON 



Tail bushy, a few darker hairs on it in No. 2189, soiled ochraceous 

 buffy in the others. 



Skull apparently rather smaller, and its nasal region less vaulted 

 than in either taxicolor or tihetanus, but, owing to differences in 

 the ages of the specimens available, a satisfactory comparison is 

 not at present possible. 



Dimensions of the male, measured by Mr. Anderson in the 

 flesh :— 



Head and body 1925 mm. ; tail 23 ; hind foot 340 ; ear 127. 



Skulls :— 



<? ? 



(young adult), (adult). 



Condylo-basal length 389 mm. 381 mm. 



Zygomatic breadth 176 1 64 



Height of nasal convexity above middle 



ofpalate 118 113 



Length of muzzle, to front of p^ 113 115 



Palatal length 245 241 



Greatest spread of horns, on outer edge... 401 308 



TyjK. Adult female. B.M. No. 11.6.1.64. Original number 

 2190. Killed 15 January, 1910. 



The discovery of this splendid animal, whose golden-buft'y colour 

 renders it by far the most beautiful of its genus, is of the highest 

 interest, and it is with great pleasure that I name the species in 

 honour of the Society's President, during whose exploration of 

 Eastern Asia it has been obtained. Mr. Anderson himself seems 

 to have thought the occurrence of Takin on Tai-pei-san of special 

 interest, and believed that they would probably prove to be new. 

 He says : " The herds on Tai-pei-san are isolated by some hundreds 

 of miles from the nearest others we could heai- of, and as I could 

 not learn that any other foreigner has hunted them on Tai-pei, I 

 believe the chance for a new species is good." 



As a matter of fact, however, specimens had previously been 

 obtained and had passed into the possession of the American 

 Museum of Natural History at New York. But these were quite 

 young, and showed, as it was not unnatural that the young should 

 show, more or less of the normal coloration of the group, with 

 blackish muzzle and extremities, and therefore in recording them 

 Dr. Allen* saw no reason to suppose them different from 

 B. fibetanus. The practically unicolor condition of B. bedfordi 

 proves therefore to be a characteristic of the adult, a fact which, 

 in view of the peculiar specialization of such a colour, is not at 

 all surprising. 



Even in B. tibetanus, as shown by Milne-Edwards's figure t, the 

 young is very materially darker than the adult. 



That the Takin of Tai-pei-san and other parts of the Pe-ling 

 i-ange should be different from that of the mountains of Sze-chwan 



* Bull. Am. MuB. N. H. xxvi. p. 425, 1909. 

 t Recli. Mamm. Atl. pi. 74. 



