CHINA 
are black and white and gradually turn yellow. No doubt the latter 
part of the statement is correct. The rut takes place towards the latter 
end of July and the beginning of August. The calves, usually one at a 
birth, are dropped towards the end of March or early in April. The 
summer excreta resemble those of domestic cattle; the winter, ovoid, 
are like a deer’s. They feed in the winter on bamboos and willows; 
in the summer on birch shoots, a kind of elm, grass and a strong- 
smelling herb with a yellow flower, a variety of senecio. When they 
descend, as they sometimes do if alarmed, into the bamboos they are 
very difficult to approach. Their pursuit under such conditions 
becomes very arduous in hot weather. 
“ In the winter they separate into small bands, but in summer 
collect and have been seen in herds of over a hundred. . . . When 
suspicious they give each other warning by a kind of hoarse cough, 
and during the rut utter a low bellow. The natives credit them with 
great ferocity. In the winter they are to be found among the dwarf 
bamboos which cover the hills at an altitude of seven or eight thousand 
feet. In summer they retreat further into the recesses of the mountains 
and spend their time on the rock -scattered slopes and battlemented 
crags which tower above the rhododendron groves and thickets of 
the Tsinling range. On being alarmed, unless badly frightened, they 
do not go very far, but stop at a little distance and begin feeding again. 
The old bulls are very cunning and always the hardest to approach 
when alone. They will lie with outstretched necks in the densest 
thickets and refuse to move until the hunter is almost on them. They 
are local in their habits, and will not wander far unless much dis- 
turbed. We saw two bulls on the same hillside, almost on the same 
spot, day after day. 
“ The horns of the old bulls do not harden into a solid central mass, 
but separate, and though tapering at the tips become worn and 
flattened in front. Those of the younger bulls are jammed close up 
against each other and are soft at their bases. When the horn growth 
is complete these harden and become more widely separated. Size 
of body is a just criterion to excellence of head. In other words, a big 
bull will almost certainly carry a big head; though the difference 
between a big head and a very big head is, in the case of the takin, only 
a matter of a few inches. The horns of the cows are considerably 
smaller than those of the bulls.” 
165 
