60 ON A SEROW FROM ANNAM, 



called " He aux moufflons/' also on the islands of the Bay of Along 

 and in the neighbourhood of Mn'h-Binh, Tonkin. (The Bay of 

 Along and Xinh-Binh lie due East and South-East of Hanoi 

 respectively). 



The occurrence of a " Wild Goat/*' or niOTe correctly, of a 

 " Goat-Antelope " or * k Serow," in South-Eastern Asia has been 

 known for more than a hundred years. The first description of a 

 Serow is by William Marsden, who in his " History of Sumatra," 

 1st edition, 1783, p. 93, says: 



"Goat: Cambing. Beside the domestic species, which is in 

 general small, and of light brown color, there is the cambing ootan, 

 or goat of the woods. One which 1 saw was three feet in height, 

 and four feet in length of the body. It had something of the 

 gazelle in its appearance and, excepting the horns, which were 

 about six inches long, and turned back with an arch, it did not 

 much resemble the common goat. The hinder parts were shaped 

 like those of a bear, the rump sloping round off from the back. 

 The tail was very small, and ended in a point. The legs clumsy. 

 The hair, along the ridge of the back, rising coarse and strong, 

 almost like bristles. No beard. Over the shoulder was a large 

 spreading tuft of greyish hair: the rest of the hair black through- 

 out. The scrotum globular. Its disposition seemed wild and 

 fierce, and it is said by the natives to be remarkably swift.'' Bech- 

 stein, in his " Allgemeine Ubersicht der vierfiissigen Thiere," 1799. 

 Vol. I, p. 98, based upon this description his Antilope sumatraensis, 

 and Raffles (Transactions, Linnean Society, Vol. XIII (1822), p. 

 266) and others corroborated the occurrence of a Serow in Suma- 

 tra. Raffles says that he kept one for months, but found it im- 

 possible to tame it, and that it finally died from impatience of con- 

 finement. 



The Raffles Museum has one specimen of a Serow from Suma- 

 tra, obtained at Lebong Tandai, near Benkoelen, and presented in 

 August of last year (1917) by Messrs. P. Jansen T. Pzn and G. J. 

 Brooks. According to Mr. Brooks the animal seems to be common 

 in the neighbourhood, as he once saw a number of Serow skins at 

 a native auction at Tijroep. This Sumatran f orm appears by Blan- 

 tord, Lydekker, S. S. Flower, Butler, Rowland Ward and others 

 under the name of Nemorhcedus sumatrensis, though Pocock has 

 since shown that it should be known as Capricomis sumatraensis. 

 (■See his papers in A. M. X. H. (8) Vol. I. pp. 183-188, and P. Z. 

 S. 1908, pp. 173-202). 



To Dr. X. Wallich who had so many connections with Singa- 

 pore, belongs the honor of having exhibited before the Zoological 

 Society, London, the first specimen of a Serow from the mainland 

 of Asia. This was in January 1832, and the skin had been trans- 

 mitted to him by Mr. B. II. Hodgson, British Resident at Kat- 

 mandoo (or Khatmaudu), Nepal. Hodgson's detailed description 

 of this animal, under the name of Antilope bubalina., is found in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Part II (1832), pp. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



