1887.] MR. A. O. HUME ON BUDORCAS TAXICOLOR. 483 



1. Remarks on certain Asiatic Ruminants. — I. Budorcas 

 TAXICOLOR, Hodgson. Tlie Gnu-goat or Takin. By A. 

 O. Hume, C.B., F.Z.S. 



[Eeceived May 2, 1887-] 



The very peculiarly shaped horas of the adult male Budorcas 

 taxicolor (fig. 1, p. 484) are well known. The older the animal grows 

 the longer do the terminal straight portions become. The pair figured 

 measure (taken from the base of the main ridge behind, along 

 this ridge over the front of the horn so far as this ridge is traceable, 

 and thence along the curve of the horn outside to the tip) 22 

 (right) and 22'5 (left horn) inches in length, and 13 and 13"5 in 

 girth at base ; they are 10"75 wide from tip to tip, with a greatest 

 interior width of ll*25 inches. The largest pair that I have met 

 with measured 24*25 inches in length, had a basal girth of 12"75, a 

 tip to tip width of 12"75, and a greatest interior width of 13 inches '. 



My second drawing (fig. 2, p. 484) shows the horns, according to 

 Blyth (as named by him in the Calcutta Museum), of the female. 

 They are very similar, it will be observed, to those of the male, but 

 smaller, stumpier (if I may use such a word), the terminal portions 

 less developed. Two pairs of this type measure : — 



Length, E. 16, L. 16 ; basal girth, R. 10, L. 10; spread 8" 75 ; 

 greatest width inside 9" 75. 



Length, R. 16-25, L. 16 ; basal girth, R. 9, L. 9*25 ; spread 7-25 ; 

 greatest width inside 8*75 ^ 



Milne-Edwards also, in his ' Recherches des Mammiferes,' p. 369, 

 says, " Chez la femelle, les cornes ont a pen pres la meme forme que 

 chez le male, mais elles sont pen courbes et moins robustes." So he, 

 like Blyth, considered the horns of the two sexes to be similar. 



But there is a wholly different type of horn in this species, accu- 

 rately represented in my third drawing (fig. 3, p. 484), and which 

 Blyth (who, however, had only a miserable wreck of a specimen to 

 go by) set down as those of the young. There is here none of that 

 apparent bending down on themselves of the horns near their bases 

 which characterizes the two other forms. The horns in this case 

 have no gnu-like twist, are circular in section throughout, compara- 

 tively short, and, beyond the basal bend, straightish, with only a 

 slight sigmoidal flexure, set very wide apart, diverging widely from 

 each other, very thick and more or less ribbed at base, diminishing 

 rapidly in thickness, and their terminal portions more or less smooth, 

 with longitudinal striae greatly resembling those of the Himalayan 

 Capricorn (or Serow). 



Now I venture to submit that by no possible process of growth 

 could horns of this third type develop into horns of either the first or 

 second types. 



^ In some horns of this type the terminal portions incline inwards much more 

 decidedly. 



^ This is the pair figured. 



