CHINA 
natives for the sake of the musk gland situated on the male organ. Musk is 
still valuable, though it has depreciated of late years. A favourite method 
is to hunt them with a scratch pack of dogs, the guns being posted at 
likely passes. I saw them on several occasions when we were trying for 
serow. Height at shoulder, about twenty inches. Hair, coarse and brittle. 
General colour, dark brown, speckled with greyish yellow. They are 
beautifully marked little beasts and good eating. Neither sex carries 
horns. Tusks from India have been recorded up to four inches, but I never 
saw a Chinese one of this length, that is, exposed from the gum. They are 
kept in captivity by the Tibetan chiefs. 
Those from the west of Tachienlu may represent a local race. 
The Burhel or Blue sheep ( Pseudois , or Ovis nahura ; native name, 
* Ngaiyang or Panyang) is an interesting animal in many respects. It indicates 
the transition point from the sheep to the goats, while providing first-class 
sport, and a very pretty trophy to the successful stalker. Burhel are com- 
mon throughout the Chino -Tibetan borderland on the higher ranges at 
an altitude between 10,000 and 17,000 feet. Specimens have been men- 
tioned as coming from Shensi, though I fancied that Kansu was the eastern 
limit of their range. A full-grown ram stands about thirty -six inches at 
the shoulder and weighs about 160 lb. The blue-brown body and legs 
are handsomely marked with black and white. These sheep have a rather 
lanky appearance, as they move about the grass slopes and rocky tops 
which they make their homes. The lambs are dropped in May. The females 
carry small horns. The horns of the males are familiar to every Indian 
sportsman; those from China are shorter and do not curve backwards so 
prominently. Two specimens killed by Major M ’Neill on the Hsueh-lang- 
shan range, west of the Min River, taped about twenty-six inches each, but 
I have never seen a head from Kansu which measured more than about 
twenty -two. The Kansu variety may subsequently be identified as a 
distinct race. 
A species of the great Asiatic sheep is said to occur to the north and 
west of Tachienlu and has been seen in the neighbourhood of Litang, but 
so far as I know none have ever been shot by Europeans. 
The Serow (Capricornis, or Nentorhaedus sumatrensis ; native name, Yeh-lau-tsze, 
or Ngai-lau-tsze) is common throughout Western China. Between 5,000 and 
10,000 feet in Western Szechuan it is probably the commonest animal. 
175 
