I860.] On the Td/cin of the Eastern Himalaya. 65 



On the Tdkin of the Eastern Himalaya : Budorcas* Taxicolor mihi . 

 N. G. (With three Plates.)— By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



When characterising in the autumn of 1847, the genera of the Ru- 

 minants of India,f I remarked on the nearly total ahsence of the 

 Bovine Antelopes, a group abundantly diffused throughout central and 

 Southern Africa, but of which we had then in India no recorded sam- 

 ple, except the Nilgaii or Portax Bisia, and of that single species no 

 instance on this — the moist and temperate side of the Ganges. The 

 remarkable animal which will be the subject of the present paper, adds 

 however, another and a highly characteristic species to that group ; and, 

 when it is stated that this animal has its abode in the Mishmi moun- 

 tains, or, in other words, in the Eastern Himalaya, all persons conver- 

 sant with the features and climate J of that locality will readily acknow- 

 ledge the interest attaching to the discovery in our moist umbrageous 

 and precipitous mountains, of a large and striking quadruped all the 

 allies of which, with one exception, are proper to the arid and fervid 

 plains of central and Southern Africa. § My spoils consist of three 

 skins in good condition belonging to males and females of mature age, 

 of a nearly perfect male scull, and parts of other sculls of both sexes. 



To Major Jenkins' kindness I am indebted for the whole, part of 

 which reached me nearly two years ago, but too imperfect for descrip- 

 tion. The spoils I now possess are however quite adequate, and will 

 justify the announcement of a new genus and species, which I proceed 

 to characterise and describe without further preface. 



The large, massive and remarkable animal, denominated Takin by 

 the Mishmis, and Kin by the Khamtis, is one of the group of Bovine 

 Antelopes. Its nearest affinity is probably to the Gnoos ; but it has 

 various points of stronger connexion with Musk Oxen, and in a natural 



* Bovs et AopKas. 



t J. A. S. No. 181, for July 1847, with corrections in No. 197, for Nov. 1848. 



t J- A. S. No. 185, for December 1847, and No. 206, for August 1849. 



§ The recent discoveries of a great snowy chain and immense lake in this region, 

 seem however to indicate that our heretofore notions of its climate and vegetation 

 will soon receive material modification. As much might I think have been inferred 

 from the size and numbers of its Herbivora, Darwin's reasoning of an opposite 

 tenor seeming to me unsatisfactory. 



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