THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
can generally be relied on for a meal. In the neighbourhood of the big 
rivers wild fowl are plentiful, so the traveller is not often compelled to go 
hungry. 
With regard to the best season for hunting in China, takin may be shot 
at any time. They move to very high ground in the summer months, which 
is an advantage in one sense, as it allows the hunter to spy his game before- 
hand. In the winter they are lower, and though the weather is often severe, 
so much climbing is not entailed. 
Wapiti are best hunted in the rutting season, as the stags can then be 
located by their roars. 
In the summer months the thick vegetation renders roe stalking a 
matter of great difficulty, as it is very hard to locate the game. The 
dry grass and frozen snow is a drawback in the autumn and winter 
months, but on the whole the chances of success are greater then than 
earlier in the year. Burhel can be hunted at any time except when 
deep snow precludes their pursuit. They descend lower in the winter, but 
probably September and October is as good a time as any. 
The summer and autumn months are the best time for goral and 
serow, as these are usually pursued with dogs, and the animals can be 
driven from the undergrowth to which they retire during the heat of 
the day. 
There are few books dealing with the large fauna to be found in China. 
Fergusson, in “Adventure, Sport and Travel on the Thibetan Steppes,” 
devotes four chapters to shooting in Szechuan; the"title of Mr Wade’s book, 
“With Boat and Gun in the Yangtze Valley,” aptly describes its contents, 
as big game, with the exception of some of the smaller varieties of river 
deer and pig, do not come within its scope; and Mr A. E. Leatham, in 
“ Sport in Five Continents,” gives three chapters to China, though he does 
not penetrate beyond Ichang. The only work which aims at being at all 
comprehensive in addition to my own is the recently published “A 
Naturalist in Western China,” by Mr E. H. Wilson. In this, two chapters 
deal with the birds and two with the mammals. 
Too much reliance should not be placed on native names, though I give 
them, as the same name may be applied to different animals in different 
localities. In Szechuan, for instance, the natives call the burhel pan-yang, 
a term which the inhabitants of Shensi apply to the takin. This latter 
animal is called by the natives of Kansu and Szechuan yienu, and the burhel 
in Kansu is known as ’ ngaiyang. 
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