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Mcessioiis lOirfi^ ^ SlioK No.
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THE GREAT AND SMALL GAME OF INDIA, BURMA, $^ TIBET
rms EDITION CONSISTS OF Tlt'O HUNDRED AND FIFTr COPIES, NUMBERED AND SIGNED,
OF WHICH rms IS
No.
AS
THE
GREAT AND SMALL GAME
OF
INDIA, BURMA, & TIBET
R. LYDEKKER
B.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S.
Hon. Member of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland., and of the Neiv Zealand Institute Correspondent of the Academy of Natural Sciences^ Philadelphia^ and of the Boston Society of Natural History. Late of the Geological Survey of India
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY SPORTSMEN
LONDON
ROWLAND WARD, Limited
"THE JUNGLE," i66 PICCADILLY
1900
Al/ rights reserved
1.,
TO
THE DUCHESS OF BEDFORD
THIS VOLUME
WITH HER GRACE'S PERMISSION
IS DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE
From its predecessor and companion, The Great and Small Game of Africa^ the present volume dififers in that it is mainly the work of a single writer. In order, however, that it should not lack the personal experi- ences which constitute such a valuable feature in the former, an appendix has been added, in which several well - known sportsmen record their experiences of the shikar- of some of the larger species. To these gentle- men the author owes his most cordial thanks. It may be added that the author himself has seen many of the Himalayan and Tibetan mammals in their native haunts ; but where his own personal observations and recollections are insufficient for his purpose, he has not hesitated to quote largely from the writings of those who have been more fortunate in their experiences.
The general systematic treatment of the subject is the same as that adopted in Mr. Blanford's volume on Mammals in the Fauna of British India ; and the author takes the opportunity of stating how much he has been indebted to that admirable work on this and other occasions. The descriptions of the different animals are, however, drawn up on somewhat more popular lines than in Mr. Blanford's work. And it will be found that species are divided up into local races to a greater extent than in the latter ; this being due to the more detailed study which has been expended on the subject since the appearance of the volume in question.
Many of the animals described here have been already treated ot by the author in Deer of All Lands and Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All
viii Great and Small Game of India, etc.
hands ; and it has consequently been a matter of considerable difficulty to avoid undue repetition. A few of the illustrations in the text have been reproduced from the works last mentioned, but the majority of these are new. Many of them are from photographs, taken expressly for this work by the Duchess of Bedford, to whom the author's most grateful thanks are hereby tendered. His acknowledgments are likewise due to the Maharaja of Kuch Behar, Sir Robert Harvey, Mr. A. O. Hume, Mr. R. M'D. Hawker, and several other gentlemen, as well as to the Council of the Zoological Society, for permission to reproduce photographs or figures.
Since the text was in type the serow of the Malay Peninsula has been separated from the Sumatran animal as a distinct species by Mr. A. L. Butler in the Proceedmgs of the Zoological Society of London for 1900, p. 675, under the name of Nemorha;dus swette7ihami. Its chief claim to distinction is the blacker colour of the entire coat, especially on the legs, which are wholly black, so that the general appearance of the animal is uniformly dark. In place, however, of being a distinct species, it is probable that the Malay serow should be regarded as a local phase of the Sumatran animal, when its title will be N. simiatrensis swettenhami.
Harpenden Lodge, St. Albans, Mickaebihis 1900.
CONTENTS AND SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS OF INDIAN, BURMESE, AND TIBETAN GAME ANIMALS
INTRODUCTION ......
Order UNGULATA— Siib-Ordcr Proboscidea — Family Elephantid^t; —
1. The Indian Elephant — Elefhas maximus Sub-Order Perissodactyla —
Family RhinocerotiDjT. —
2. The Indian Rhinoceros — Rhinoceros unicornis
3. The Javan Rhinoceros — Rhinoceros sondaicus
4. The Sumatran Rhinoceros — Rhinoceros sumatrensis a. Hairy-eared Race — RInnoceros sumatrensis lasiotis
Family Tapirid^ —
5. The Malay Tapir— 7T//./ra/ zW/<-;^j Family Equid^, —
6. The Asiatic Wild Ass — Equus heinionus
a. Kiang or Tibetan Race — Equus h?emionus typicus .
b. Ghorkhar or Baluchi Race — Equus l?emionus onager Sub-Order Artiodactyla —
Family Bovid/e —
7. The Gaur — Bos gaurus
8. The Gayal — Bos frontalis .
9. The Banting — Bos sondaicus a. Tsaing or Burmese Race — Bos .
10. The Yak— ^w
onda,
X Great and Small Game of India, etc.
Order UNGULATA {continued)— Sub-Order Artiodactyla [continued) — Family BoviD^ [continued) — ■
11. The Arna, or Indian Buffalo — Bos bubnlii
a. Typical Race — Bos bubalis typicus
b. Upper Assam Race — Bos bubalis fulvus
12. Marco Polo's Sheep — Ovis poli .
13. The Argali — Ovis ammon a. Tibetan Race — Ovis ammon kodgsoni
14. The Sha, or Urial — Ovis vignei .
a. Aster Race — Ovis vignei typica .
b. Punjab Race — Ovis vignei cycloceros
15. The Bharal, or Blue Sheep — Ovis nahur,
16. The Common Go3.x.~Capra hircus a. Sind Wild Race— C^/n; hircus blytki
17. The Asiatic Ibex — Capra sibirica
a. Baltistan Race — Capra sibirica zoardi
b. Dauvcrgne's Race — Capra sibirica dauvergnei
c. Himalayan Race — Capra sibirica sacin .
18. The yVzx\.\vox— Capra fahoneri .
a. Astor Race — Capra f ale 07ieri typica
b. Pir Panjal Race — Capra falconeri cashniriensis
c. Cabul Race — Capra falconeri megaceros .
d. Suleman Race — Capra falconeri jerdoni .
19. The Himalayan Tahr — Hemitragus jemlaictis
20. The Nilgiri Tahr — Hemitragus hylocrius
21. The Serow — Nemorhcedus sumatrensis
a. Sumatran Race — Nemorhcedus stnnatre7isis typicus
b. Tibetan Race — Nemorhcedus sumatrensis mihte-ediuardsi
c. Arakan Race — Ne?norhcedus sumatrensis rubidus .
d. Himalayan Race — Nemorhcedus stcmatrensis bubalinus
22. The Himalayan Goral — Urotragus goral .
23. The Ashy Tibetan Goral — Urotragus cinereus
24. The Grey Tibetan Goral — Urotragus griseus
25. The Takin — Budorcas taxicolor . .
a. Mishmi Race — Budorcas taxicolor typicus
b. Moupin Race — Budorcas taxicolor tibetanus
Contents
XI
Order UNGULATA {continued)— Sub-Order Artiodactyla {continued) — Family Bovid^ {continued) —
26. The Nilgai, or Blue Bull — Boselaptus tragocnmelus
27. The Four-horned hvi\.(t\oi^Q.— Tetraceros quadricornis
28. The Bkckbuck — Antikpe cervicapra
29. The Chiru, or Tibetan Antelope — Pmitholops hodgsojii
30. The Goa, or Tibetan Gazelle — Gaxella picticaudata
31. The Goitred Gazelle — Gazel/a subgutturosa
32. The Chinkara Gazelle — Gdzella bemietti
a. Typical Race — Gazella bennetti typica
b. Baluchi Race — Gazella bennetti fuscifrons Family CervidjE —
33. The Hangul, or Kashmir Stag — Cerz'us cashmirianus
34. The Shou, or Sikhim Stag — Cervus affinis
35. Thorold's Deer, or Lhasa Stag — Cervus albirostris
36. The Sambar — Cervus unicolor
a. Indian Race — Cervus utiicolor typicus
b. Malay Race — Cervus unicolor equinus
37. The Para, or Hog-Deer — Cervus porcinus
38. The Chital, or Indian Spotted Deer — Cervus axis
39. The Swamp-Deer — Cervus duvauceli
40. The Thamin — Cervus eldi
41. The Indian Muntjac — Cervulus muntjac
42. The Tibetan Muntjac — Cervulus lachrymans
43. The Tenasserim Muntjac — Cervulus fere
44. The Tibetan Tufted T>ecx—Elapbodus cephalopkus
45. The Himalayan Musk-Deer — Moschus ?noscbiferus Family TragulidjE —
46. The Indian Spotted Chevrotain — Tragulus meminna
47. The Napu Chevrotain — Tragulus napu .
48. The Kanchil Chevrotain — Tragulus javanicus Family Suid^ —
49. The Indian Wild Boar — Sus cristatus
a. Indian Race — Sus cristatus typicus
b. Andamanese Race — Sus cristatus andamanensis
c. Moupin Race — Sus cristatus moupinensis
50. The Pigmy Hog— 5w salvanius .
146
153 158 167 173 176 185 185 192
193 202 204 206 206 21; 217
234 238 243 244
245 247
253 256
257
258 265 266 266
xii Great and Small Game of India, etc.
lER CARNIVORA— Family FeliDjE —
5 I . The Lion — Tclis leo
52. The Tiger— fi'/w tigris .
53. The Leopard — Felis pardus
a. Indian Race — Felis pardus typica
b. Persian Race — Felis pardus paiitkera
54. The Ounce, or Snow-Leopard — Felis uncia
55. The Clouded Leopard — Felis nebulosa
56. The Golden or Bay Cat — Felis temminck.
57. The Fishing-Cat — Felis viverrina
58. The Leopard-Cat — Felis bengalensis
59. Pallas's Cat — Felis manul
60. The Jungle-Cat — Felis chaus a. Indian Race — Felis chaus affi?iis
61. The Desert-Cat — Felis ornata .
62. The Caracal— F^//V caracal
63. The Lynx — Felis lynx . a. Tibetan Race — Felis lynx isabellina
64. The Hunting-Leopard — Cynalurus juhatus Family Viverrid^ —
65. The Indian Civet — Viverra zibetha
66. The Binturong — Arctictis binturong Family Hy^nidje —
67. The Striped Hyjena — Hytena striata Family Canid^, — •
68. The ^o\i—Canis lupus .
a. Typical Race — Canis lupus typicus
b. Tibetan Race — Canis lupus laniger 6g. The Indian Wolf — Canis pallipes
•JO. The Malay Wild Dog — Canis sumatrensis
a. Typical Race — Canis sumatrensis typicus
b. Indian Race — Canis stunatrensis deccanejisis Family Procyonid^ —
71. The Himalayan Panda — jSlurus fulgens
72. The Short-tailed 7anAa—.iEluropus melanoleucus
Contents
Xlll
Order CARNIVORA {continued)— Family Ursidj^ —
73. The Brown Bear — -IJrsus arctus .
a. Himalayan Race — Vrsus arctus iuibeUinus
74. The Tibetan Blue Bear — Ursus pruinosus
■Ji^. The Himalayan Black Bear — Ursus torquatus
76. The Malay Bear — Ursus malaya?ius
77. The Sloth-Bear — Melursus ursinus Order RODENTIA—
Family Sciurid^e —
78. The Red Marmot — Arctomys caiidatus Family LeporidjE —
79. The Black-napcd Hare — Lepus n'tgricoUis
80. The North-Indian Hare — Lepus ruficaudatus
81. The Sind Hare— i^/?/^ rt'^;j/?Wi .
82. The Burmese Hare — Lepus peguensis
83. The Afghan Hare — Lepus tibetanus
84. Tibetan Hares — Lepus okstolus and hypsibius
356
356 361 364 371 373
380
382 383 384 38s 38S 386
APPENDIX—
Gaur-Shooting in Upper Burma. By Mr. C. W. A. Bruce .... 389
Yak-Shooting in Ladak. By Mr. H. C. V. Hunter ..... 391
Banting or Hsaing-Shooting in Burma. By Mr. C. W. A. Bruce . . . 393
Himalayan Argali-Shooting. By Mr. H. C. V. Hunter . . . -395
Ovis Poli-Shooting. By Major C. S. Cumberland ..... 397
Serow-Shooting in Burma. By Mr. C. W. A. Bruce . . . .398
Indian Gazelle-Shooting. By Mr. H. C. V. Hunter . . . .400
Goa-Shooting. By Mr. H. C. V. Hunter . . . . . .401
Nilgai-Shooting. By Mr. H. C. V. Hunter ..... 402
Swamp-Deer and Gaur-Shooting in Central India. By Major C. S. Cumberland . 402
Hog-Deer Stalking. By Mr. H. C. V. Hunter ...•■405
Thamin-Shooting in Burma. By Mr. C. W. A. Bruce and Mr. G. R. Radmore . 406 Lion-Shooting in Kathiawar. By Lieut.-Col. L. L. Fenton .... 410
LIST OF PLATES
PLATE I ........
I. Indian Elephant. 2. Indian Rhinoceros. 3. Javan Rhinoceros. 4. Sumatran Rhinoceros. 5. Malay Tapir. 6. Kiang.
PLATE 2
III. Gaur. 2, 21?. Gayal. 3. Burmese Banting, or Tsaing. 4, 4^. Yak. 5, ^11. Indian Buffalo.
PLATE 3 ........ 83
I, 111. Marco Polo's Sheep. 2, 2rf. Tibetan Argali. 3. Sha. 4, ^a. Uriah 5, ^11. Bharal.
PLATE 4 ........
I, I.;. Sind Wild Goat. 2, m. Himalayan Ibex. 3. Astor Markhor. 4. Pir Panjal Markhor. 5, 5.;. Suleman Markhor. 6. Himalayan Tahr. 7. Nilgiri Tahr.
PLATE 5 ........
I, III. Mishmi Takin. 2, in. Himalayan Serow. 3. Goral. 4. Chiru. 5. Blackbuck. 6. Four-horned Antelope. 7, Jii. Indian Chinkara Gazelle. 8. Persian Goitred Gazelle, g. Goa Gazelle. 10. Nilgai.
PLATE 6 ........
1. Hangul. 2. Shou. 3. Thorold's Deer. 4. Indian Sambar. 5. Malay Sambar. 6. Chital. 7. Swamp-Deer. 8. Thamin.
PLATE 7 ........
I. Hog-Deer. 2. Indian Muntjac. 3. Tenasserim Muntjac. 4. Tibetan Tufted Deer. 5. Musk-Dcer. 6. Indian Chevrotain. 7. Indian Wild Boar. 8. Pigmy Hog.
t93
239
xvi Great and Small Game of India, etc.
PLATE 8 ........ 269
1. Indian Lion. 2. Bengal Tiger. 3. Indian Leopard. 4. Persian Leopard. 5. Snow- Leopard. 6. Clouded Leopard. 7. Fishing-Cat. 8. Leopard- Cat. 9. Jungle- Cat. 10. Caracal. II. Tibetan Lynx. 12. Hunting-Leopard.
335
|
PLATE 9 |
||||||||||
|
I. Binturong. |
2. |
Striped Hya;na. 3 |
. Tibetan |
Wolf. , |
\- 1 |
ndian Wolf. 5. |
Wild |
Dog. |
||
|
6. Hima |
layan |
Panda. 7. |
Short |
-tailed |
Panda. 8. |
Hi |
malayan Brown |
Bear. |
9- |
|
|
Tibetan |
Blue |
Bear. 10. |
Hima |
layan |
Bla |
ck Bear. |
n |
. Malay Bear. |
12. Sloth- |
TEXT FIGURES
Skull of Indian Elephant .
Kiang at Woburn Abbey .
Bull Gaur
Skull of Cow Gaur
Skull of Bull Gayal
Head of Bull Burmese Banting
Parti-coloured and White Yak
Skull of Bull Yak
Black Yak at Woburn Abbey
Skulls of Indian Buffalo .
Head of Marco Polo's Sheep
Head of Urial
Sind Wild Goat .
Skull of Sind Wild Goat .
Baltistan Ibex
Horns of Astor Markhor .
Skull of Pir Panjal Markhor
Horns of Western Markhor
Skull of Cabul Markhor .
Skull of Suleman Markhor
Head of Male Suleman Markh
Skull of Himalayan Serow
Female Goral
Skull of Male Takin
Skull of Young Takin
Female Nilgai
Skull of Blackbuck
Persian Goitred Gazell
Goitred Gazelle Skulls
Skull of Yarkand Goitred Gazelle
Head of Chinkara Gazelle
Hangul Stag at Woburn Abbey
Hangul Stag
.r Tsaing Woburn Abbey
7 35 41 45 53 57 65 67 70 75 79 91 98
99 103
114 115 H7 119 121
135 137 142
H3 149 161 179 181 183 187 195 197
XVlll
Great and Small Game of India, etc.
Skull and Antlers of Yarkand Stag
Skull and Antlers of six-tined Yarkand Stag
Skull and Antlers of Shou
Sambar Stag
Head of Indian Sambar
Skull of Indian Sambar with abnormal Antlers
Frontlet and Antlers of Malay Sambar
Head of Male Hog-Deer
Hog-Deer Stag
Swamp-Deer
Head of Chital Stag
Chital Hind
Head of Swamp-Deer Stag
Swamp-Deer Stag .
Head of Swamp-Deer with abnormal Antlers
Group of Thamin
Frontlet and Antlers of Muntjac
Head of Michie's Tufted Deer
Musk-Deer
Indian Tiger Skin
Manchurian Tiger Skin
White Tiger Skin
Skin of African Leopard
Skin of Indian Leopard
Indian Leopard
Skin of Snow-Leopard
Tibetan Blue Bear
Skull and Antlers of Shou
Indian Lion
203 207 209 21 1 216 218 219 220 222 223 229 230 231 235 2 + 1 246 249 277 279 281 297 299 301
309 362
THE
GREAT AND SMALL GAME OF INDIA, BURMA, AND TIBET
INTRODUCTION
The vast area of which the game animals (or, to speak correctly, game mammals) are described in the present volume may be designated in popular language " the Sportsman's India." Roughly speaking, it is taken to include the drainage-basins of the Indus, Bramaputra, and Irawadi rivers, or the greater portion thereof, together with the whole of India, the island of Ceylon, and the maritime province of Tenasserim. Including a large part of Baluchistan and Afghanistan, the area is well defined towards the north-west by the immense barrier of the Hindu -Kush and Karakoram ranges. Eastwards of the latter the boundary is fixed by the Tangla Mountains, to the north of Lhasa, whence an arbitrary line may be drawn to the eastern frontier of Burma, which may be taken as the boundary in this direction. The whole of Tibet and the Himalaya will consequently fall within the area treated of; but, on the other hand. Eastern Turkestan and China, as well as Siam and the Malay Peninsula, are excluded.
It has to be acknowledged that, in fixing these limits, a somewhat arbitrary division has been made ; and it has been urged upon the writer that it would have been better to include the whole of Asia, as it seems
2 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
rather illogical to describe certain of the wild sheep and deer of Central Asia to the exclusion of others. And undoubtedly there is much to be said for this view. On the other hand, the fauna of Western Asia passes imperceptibly into that of Eastern Europe, so that if Asia were taken as the limits of the area to be included, the boundary would be fully as arbitrary, from the point of view of the fauna, as is at present the case, if, indeed, it were not more so. Of course, there is the reply. Why not include Europe also ? But to describe the game animals of such a large area as the whole of Asia and Europe is a task which neither the author nor the publisher are, for the present at any rate, inclined to undertake.
The area, as thus limited, contains an assemblage of game animals belonging to two great zoological provinces ; those ot the cis-Indus and cis-Himalayan portion of the area, together with Burma and Tenasserim, pertaining to what naturalists call the Oriental region, while those beyond these limits come within the Eastern Holarctic or Palcearctic region. The northern frontiers of India and Burma are, in fact, the meeting-place of two great faunas. But in Burma and India themselves minor zoological sub- divisions are indicated by the distribution of the game and other animals. In Tenasserim, for example, the animals are distinctly of a Malayan type, as is instanced by the presence of the tapir, the Malay bear, the banting, and the binturong. And these Malayan types are traceable, although with an intermingling of peculiar forms, like the thameng, into Assam and the Eastern Himalaya ; the Malayan forms being perhaps even more pronounced in the latter area than they are in Burma. Other Malayan types are the two smaller species of Asiatic rhinoceros, one of which has penetrated into Lower Bengal.
Of the game animals of Burma itself, some, like the gaur, are identical with those of India ; others, like the banting, are Malayan ; while others again may be regarded as Eastern representatives of Indian forms. As an instance of the latter class may be cited the thameng and the Malay
Introduction 3
sambar, which are respectively the Burmese representatives of the Indian swamp-deer and Indian sambar. Assam forms the meeting-ground of the Indian and the Burmese faunas.
Peninsular India, which is properly restricted to the area south of the great plain formed by the alluvium of the Indus and Ganges, but which is often considered to extend to the foot of the Himalaya, is, of course, the home of the true Indian fauna, examples of which are the chital, the hog- deer, the swamp-deer, the Indian sambar, the nilgai, and the sloth-bear. But, even apart from minor divisions due to varying conditions ot climate, soil, vegetation, etc., Peninsular India is by no means uniform as regards its animals. And the Malabar coast is very distinct in this respect from the whole of the remainder of the area, although showing considerable resemblances to Ceylon, except the north of the latter, which is more akin in its animals to Peninsular India generally. Many characteristically Indian animals, such as the tiger, the Indian wolf, and the swamp-deer, are, how- ever, absent from Ceylon.
In the trans-Indus districts of the Punjab, and still more markedly in Western Sind, Baluchistan, and Afghanistan, we gradually take leave of the fauna of Peninsular India (and with it that of the Oriental region generally), and find it replaced by a Persian element ; these Persian types pertaining to the Holarctic fauna of Western Asia and Europe. Examples of such western types are met with in the form of the European wolf, the Persian leopard, the wild ass, and the Persian gazelle. The lion, too, belongs to this Persian fauna, although it has succeeded in penetrating farther into India than some of the other members. All traces of the Malayan fauna, such as tapirs, the two smaller species of rhinoceros, and the Malay bear, are totally wanting from the area occupied by the Persian fauna.
In the cis-Indus Salt Range of the Punjab we meet with an outlier of the Persian fauna in the form of the true urial. This animal, together with the straight-horned markhor of the trans-Indus Suleman Range, like-
4 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
wise serves to connect the Punjab-Persian fauna with that of Central Asia, which also forms a part of the great Holarctic region.
It has been already mentioned that the animals of the Eastern Himalaya display a marked resemblance to the Malayan type. Passing westwards along the chain, this Malayan element practically disappears west of Nepal ; and from thence the Himalayan fauna as far north as the limits of trees is to a great extent transitional between that of Peninsular India on the one hand and that of Central Asia on the other. Kashmir, which comes within the limits of this intermediate zone, exhibits the transition between the Oriental and Central Asian fauna very markedly, with some indications of a Persian element. The Himalayan black bear is a very characteristic animal of this zone, as are the tahr and the goral.
With the high Himalaya and the more or less arid districts of Gilgit, Ladak, etc., we enter the area inhabited by the Tibetan fauna, which is more or less markedly distinct from that of the rest of Central Asia. Among these peculiar Tibetan types may be cited the yak, the chiru, the goa, and the kiang, together with various wild sheep, all of which are inhabitants of very arid and elevated country. Further eastwards, in the Lhasa district, we enter the limits of a subdivision of this fauna adapted to live at a lower elevation in a more humid climate ; among the members of this group being the short-tailed panda, the takin, Thorold's deer, and the Tibetan blue bear.
Passing on to Turkestan and Altai country, the home of Marco Polo's sheep, the true argali, the East Asiatic wapiti, and the Siberian roe, we reach the tract populated by the typical Central Asian fauna, lying beyond the limits to which the present volume is restricted. The tiger is probably to be regarded as a wanderer from the Central Asian fauna into India and the Malay countries.
With these few preliminary remarks on a very difficult but very inter- esting subject, the description of the various species may be commenced.
THE INDIAN ELEPHANT
{JLlephas maximiis)
Native Names. — Hathi, Hathni (female), Hindustani ; Hasti and Gaja, Sanscrit ; F//, Persian ; Haust, Kashmiri ; Gaj, Bengali ; Aiie, Telegu, Tamil, Canarese, etc. ; Tani of the Gonds ; Hattanga, Khonda, and Eniga, Telegu ; Tanei, Kunjaram, and Veranum, Malabari ; Ata and AUia, Cingalese ; Tengmu of the Lepchas ; Langcheu and Lambochi of the Bhotias ; Mongma and Naplo of the Garo Hill Tribes ; Migung, Kachari ; Atche of the Akas ; Sotso, Supo, Chit, and Tsii of the Nagas ; Sitte at Abor ; Tsang in Khamti ; Magiii, Singhpho ; Saipi of the Kukis ; Amieng and Maiiyong in the Mishmi Hills ; Samu of the Manipuris ; Tsheiig, Burmese ; Tsiug, Talain ; Tsan in the Shan States ; Kahsa of THE Karens ; Gaja, Malay
(Plate I. Fig. i)
In all works of sport, and in the majority of those on natural history, the Indian elephant, if it be not called Elephas asiaticus, is termed £. inJicus ; but at the present day it is the fashion to follow priority in nomenclature, and according to this the proper name is undoubtedly £. maximus. It may be objected that, on the average, the Indian elephant is a smaller animal than its African relation, and that, accordingly, the latter name is invalid ; but objections of this class are disregarded by naturalists, and sportsmen should consequently make up their minds to accept the change.
6 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
As the largest and most strange in appearance of all the animals of India, the elephant looms large in the ancient traditions and religions of the country, figuring in the Hindu mythology as Ganesa — the elephant- headed god. From its ancient Sanscrit names Hasti and Gaja are derived most of its titles among the Aryan tribes ot India ; while even the Malays, who speak a tongue of totally different origin, have adopted the latter of these two names. Although now the sole representative of its tribe in Asia, the Indian elephant is the survivor of a whole host of species formerly inhabiting the country from which it takes its name ; some of these extinct species being very close to their existing descendant, while others (mastodons) had teeth of a totally distinct type, some of them being provided with tusks in both the upper and lower jaws. From the number of its species, coupled with the tact that it is here alone that a complete transition is to be found between the mastodons and the modern elephants, it is indeed probable that South-Eastern Asia was the original home of the group.
As everybody knows an elephant by sight, while many people are acquainted with the leading external differences between the Asiatic and the African species, it will be quite unnecessary to point out the peculiar characteristics of elephants in general, or to enter in any great detail into the consideration of the features by which the two living representa- tives of the group are distinguished from one another. An exception in regard to one particular of elephant anatomy may, however, be made, seeing that comparatively few people grasp the peculiar mode of develop- ment and replacement obtaining in the teeth of these animals.
As regards the tusks (which, by the way, do not correspond to the tusks of a wild boar, but to one of the pairs of incisor or front teeth), these arise from the upper jaw, and grow throughout the entire life of their owner, after they have once made their appearance. In very young elephants they are preceded by a pair of milk-tusks, which
The Elephant
7
are soon shed. And here it may be mentioned that the present writer once had a friendly dispute with the late Mr. G. P. Sanderson as to the existence of these said milk-tusks. With the intention of convincing the writer that no such tusks existed, that sportsman sent down to
Fig. I. — Skull ot Indian elephant, showing the worn masticating surface of the fifth pair of molars, behind which are the unworn sixth pair, whose summits during life were still in the gum.
Calcutta the skull of an extremely young elephant supposed to have the permanent tusks in a very early stage of growth. When one of these tusks was removed from the jaw, it was, however, found to have the lower extremity closed, whereas, as everybody knows, the permanent tusks have the lower end open throughout life. Consequently, Mr. Sanderson was convinced of his mistake. The identical skull in question
8 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
is now exhibited in the beautiful series of mammalian teeth displayed in the entrance hall of the Natural History Museum.
As regards the molar or cheek-teeth of elephants, there are six pairs developed in each jaw, but only portions of two of these are in use at any one time, and in an aged animal there is but one on each side of both the upper and the lower jaw. These teeth are composed of a number of vertical transverse plates closely packed together ; the number of such plates gradually increasing from the first tooth, in which there are four, to the last, which may have as many as twenty-four. The teeth are pushed up in the jaws in an arc of a circle, and as each tooth becomes worn down, it is gradually pushed out from behind by its successor, which at the same time takes its place. And, of course, the end of this process is that the animal is eventually left with but a single pair of grinding teeth in each jaw ; and when these are completely worn away by use, a term must naturally be put to the life of their owner.
Compared with those of its African relative, the molars of the Indian elephant have their component plates narrower and more numerous, with the layers of enamel thrown into a number of fine puckers or pleats. Consequently, on the worn surface of the crown, the disks formed by the abraded plates are much the more numerous and narrower in the Indian species, while their enamel -borders are thin and pleated instead of comparatively thick and plain.
The females of the Indian elephant carry, as a rule, but very small tusks, which do not project beyond the lips, and in some cases the males show an equally poor development of these weapons. Such unarmed males are known in India as makhna^ in contradistinction to the dauiiiela, or tuskers.
Usually the Indian elephant has five polished hoof-like nails, on the fore, and four on the hind-feet. But the most striking external point
The Elephant
of distinction between this and the African species is to be found in the comparatively small size of the ears. Next to this comes the presence of a finger-like process on the front edge only of the tip of the trunk, the African species having such a process on both the front and hind margins. The skin is comparatively smooth, and the coarse bristles on the tail are confined to the front and back edges for some distance above the tip. Other noticeable features in the present species are the comparative flatness of the forehead and the regularly convex profile of the back.
Much ink and paper have been used in the course of discussions relating to the height attained by the Indian elephant, but since the subject has now been thoroughly threshed out, it will be treated very briefly on the present occasion. Roughly speaking, about 9 feet may be given as the ordinary height for large males, and 8 feet for females. But an elephant of 9 feet 4 inches has been killed in Ceylon, and one of 9 feet 7 inches in Mysore ; while two are known to have attained the height of 10 feet i inch, a third of 10 feet 4 inches, and a fourth (killed by Viscount Powerscourt in Gurhwal) of 1 1 feet. All these dimensions appear, however, to be dwarfed by a huge skeleton in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, which indicates that during life the animal to which it belonged was at least a dozen feet in height.
Of tusks, the three longest specimens on record respectively measure 8 feet 9 inches, 8 feet 2 inches, and 8 feet ; their respective weights being 81, 80, and 90 lbs. But these are by no means the heaviest — one, whose length is 7 feet 3I inches, weighing 102 lbs. ; while a second, of which the length is 7 feet 3^ inches, scaled 97^ lbs., both these two latter examples being from Ceylon. Of the largest pair in the possession of the British Museum, which belonged to an elephant killed in 1866 by Colonel G. M. Payne in Madura, one tusk measures 6 feet 8 inches in length, and weighs yj% lbs., the other being somewhat
lo Great and Small Game of India, etc.
smaller. As regards the circumference of the base of the foot, the following are the six largest examples recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward, namely, 67^, 62-I, 61, 60 1, and 60 (two) inches.
Within the area treated of in the present volume, the elephant inhabits the forest districts of India, Ceylon, Assam, and Burma, although it is now exterminated in several parts of the country where it formerly flourished. Indeed, were it not for the strict protective laws established by the provincial Governments of India, as well as by the authorities in Ceylon, this noble beast would have long since disappeared from most of its present haunts, even if it had not ceased to exist altogether. Eastwards and southwards of Burma the elephant is to be met with in the Malay Peninsula, Siam, and Cochin China, as well as in the great islands of Sumatra and Borneo, although in the last of these its presence may have been originally due to human agency.
Much discussion has taken place as to whether the Sumatran and the Ceylon elephant, which were at one time grouped together, are distinct from the continental animal. It was said, for instance, that the Sumatran elephant was more slenderly built, with a longer and more slender trunk, and the extremity of the tail more expanded, and furnished with longer and stronger bristles ; while there were also stated to be points of diiference connected with the cheek-teeth and the skeleton. In connection with these alleged differences the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, who paid great attention to the study of elephants, both recent and fossil, wrote as follows : — " Even in the sal-forests of North-Western India, at the extreme northern limit of the species at the present day, the difference of slender-built and squat-built elephants is well known, being expressed, for the Bengal variety, under the designation of ' Mirghi,' or Cervine, for the former, and ' Koomarea ' for the latter, or, when the characters are combined, ' Sunkarea.' The trunk varies in a similar manner, being somewhat short and thick in some, and long and more
The Elephant 1 1
slender in others. The fringe of bristles to the tail is variable in degree, according to the sex, age, and vigour of the animal. A good fringe is seldom retained long in captivity ; when present, it always enhances the price of the animal in the estimation of the natives of India. That the animal varies considerably in appearance, according to the district in which it has been captured, has long been well known in India. Abu Fuzl, in his account of the elephant -stables of Akbar, enumerates six varieties, distinguished by form, different marks, or colouring ; and the experienced mahouts attached to the Government Commissariat in Bengal will tell at a glance the district where a recently caught elephant has been bred, whether the sal-forests of the North-West Provinces, Sylhet, Assam, Chittagong, Tippera, or Kuttak."
The same writer then goes on to demonstrate that since the alleged osteological differences between the Sumatran and the continental Indian elephant are non-existent, while there are no constant features of dis- tinction in their teeth, the two are not specifically separable.
So far as the question of species is concerned, the truth of this conclusion may be accepted without hesitation. It is, however, quite probable that the Sumatran elephant may belong to a sub-species or local race, different from the one inhabiting the Indian mainland, if indeed there be only a single race in the latter area. It may be added that the Ceylon elephant was regarded as identical with the Sumatran form ; but if the latter indicate a separate race, it is practically certain that the Ceylon animal must likewise be distinct, since it differs from the mainland form by the rarity of tusks in the males, which are said to occur only in about one out of every three hundred individuals.
At present the materials existing in England are quite insufficient to allow of any definite opinion being given on these points. It the Sumatran elephant be distinct, it will have to be known as Elephas maximus sumatramis.
12 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
As regards the present distribution of elephants in India itself, these animals are found along the foot of the Himalaya as far west as the valley of Dehra Dun, where the winter temperature falls to a com- paratively low point. A favourite haunt used to be the swamp of Azufghur, lying among the sal-forests to the northward of the station of Meerut. In the great tract of forest between the Ganges and Kistna rivers they occur locally as far west as Bilaspur and Mandla ; they are met with in the Western Ghats as far north as between latitude 17° and 18°, and are likewise found in the hill-forests of Mysore (the hunting district of G. P. Sanderson in his earlier days), as well as still farther south. In this part of the peninsula they ascend the hills to a considerable height, as they do in the Newera Ellia district of Ceylon, where they have been encountered at an elevation of over 7000 feet above the sea. There is historical evidence to prove that about three centuries ago elephants wandered in the forests of Malwa and Nimar, while they survived to a much later date in the Chanda district of the Central Provinces. At the comparatively remote epoch when the Deccan was a forest tract, they were probably also to be met with there, but the swamps of the Bengal Sandarbans appear to be unsuited to their habits.
So many excellent accounts of the mode of life of the wild Indian elephant are extant (those by Sir J. E. Emerson Tennent, Sir S. Baker, and Mr. G. P. Sanderson being among the best), that a very short notice will here suffice. The structure of the teeth is sufficient to indicate that the food consists chiefly of grass, leaves, succulent shoots, and fruits ; and this has been found by observation to be actually the case. In this respect the Asiatic species differs very widely trom its African relative, whose nutriment is largely composed of boughs and roots. Another difference between the two animals is to be found in the great intolerance of the direct rays of the sun displayed by the
The Elephant 13
Asiatic species, which never voluntarily exposes itself to their influence. Consequently, during the hot season in Upper India, and at all times except during the rains in the more southern districts, elephants keep much to the denser parts of the forests. In Southern India they delight in hill-forest, w^here the undergrowth is largely formed of bamboo, the tender shoots of which form a favourite delicacy ; but during the rains they venture out to feed on the open grass tracts. Water is everywhere essential to their well-being ; and no animals delight more thoroughly in a bath. Nor are they afraid to venture out of their depth, being excellent swimmers, and able, by means of their trunks, to breathe without difficulty when the entire body is submerged. The herds, which are led by females, appear in general to be family parties ; and although commonly restricted to from thirty to fifty, may occasionally include as many as one hundred head. The old bulls are very generally solitary for a considerable portion of the year, but return to the herds during the pairing season. Some " rogue " elephants — giiiida of the natives — remain, however, permanently separated from the rest of their kind. All such solitary bulls, as their colloquial name indicates, are of a spiteful disposition ; and it appears that with the majority the inducement to live apart is due to their partiality for cultivated crops, into which the more timid females are afraid to venture. " Mast " elephants are males in a condition of — probably sexual — excitement, when an abundant discharge of dark oily matter exudes from two pores in the forehead. In addition to various sounds produced at other times, an elephant when about to charge gives vent to a shrill loud " trumpet " ; and on such occasions rushes on its adversary with its trunk safely rolled up out of danger, endeavouring either to pin him to the ground with its tusks (if a male tusker) or to trample him to death beneath its ponderous knees or feet.
Exact information in regard to the period of gestation of the female
14 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
elephant is still a desideratum ; this being mainlv due to the remarkable circumstance that in India elephants very rarely breed in captivity, although thev are said to do so much more commonlv in Burma and Siam. From observations made in Philadelphia on elephants in a menagerie, Mr. H. C. Chapman estimated the duration of pregnancv at as much as twenty-two months ; but other observers have put it at nineteen, while by some it has been reduced to eighteen months. Possibly the native explanation, that the period is twenty-two months in the case of bull calves, and eighteen in that of females, may prove to be correct. The newly born calf almost immediately stands on its feet, and soon alter sucks, effecting the latter operation by raising its trunk and applying its mouth to the maternal teats, which are two in number and situated between the fore-legs, ^^ery rarely two calves are produced at a birth.
Elephant shooting, which is practised on foot, is perhaps the most dangerous of all Indian field-sports ; and a charging elephant needs all the nerve and coolness of the sportsman. Describing the charge of an elephant, Mr. Sanderson observes that " the cocked ears and broad forehead present an immense frontage ; the head is held high, with the trunk curled between the tusks, to be uncoiled in the moment of attack ; the massive fore-legs come down with the force and regularity of ponderous machinery ; and the whole figure is rapidly foreshortened, and appears to double in size with each advancing stride. The trunk being curled and unable to emit any sound, the attack is made in silence, after the usual premonitory shriek."'
Here it may be mentioned that an elephant drinks by sucking up water with its trunk and then pouring it into its mouth ; all food being likewise conveyed to the mouth by the same organ.
With modern weapons of precision and penetrating power, and the accurate knowledge possessed of the vital points of an elephant by the majority of sportsmen, these animals are now generally despatched with
The Elephant 15
comparative speed and certainty. Not so, however, in the old days, as the following account of an old " rogue," whose skull is now in the British Museum, sufficiently attests. This elephant, writes Dr. Falconer, " was killed in the jungles, on the banks of the Ganges, at no great distance from Meerut, in May 1833, by a party of five experienced sportsmen, who went out for the express purpose of killing it. The savage animal made no fewer than twenty-three desperate and gallant charges against a battery of at least sixteen double-barrelled guns, to which it was exposed on each occasion, and fell, after several hours, with its skull literally riddled with bullets. Besides the shot-holes ot its last engagement, the frontal plateau alone bears, above the nasals, the healed canals of at least sixteen bullet- holes received in previous encounters, exclusive of those effaced by the confluent fissures of its latest wounds."
An examination of the battered skull shows that not a single bullet had penetrated the comparatively small brain-chamber ; all having traversed merely the surrounding mass of honevcomb-like bone, where they could do but little damage. To reach the vital brain-cavitv, the sportsman selects one of three shots. In the case of the front shot, the point at which to aim varies according to the position of the elephant at the moment of pulling the trigger. When, for instance, the animal is standing facing the sportsman in the ordinary position the point at which to aim is situated in the middle line of the forehead about 3 inches above the plane of the eyes. On the other hand, if the elephant is in the act of charging, the front shot must be planted lower down, near the base of the trunk; and since the bullet has then to traverse a much greater thickness before entering the brain-chamber, high penetrative power on the part of the projectile is of the utmost importance ; moreover, a very slight error in the aim will render this shot ineffectual. When the sportsman is on one side of the elephant, the temple-shot is the most effective ; the ritie being aimed so that the bullet should strike the aperture of the ear, or the immediate
1 6 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
neighbourhood of the same, in such a manner as to pass out on the opposite side of the skull in the same region. The rear, or ear-shot, should be planted in the hollow just above the conspicuous bump or swelling at the junction of the jaw and the neck, and should be taken so as to form an angle of about 45° with the elephant's course from behind. In addition to these three head-shots, there is also a shot behind the shoulder, although this does not find much favour among sportsmen.
With the aid of the excellent diagrams given in Mr. Sanderson's book, the sportsman who essays elephant shooting for the first time should make a careful study of the vertical section of the skull of one of these animals, so as to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the locality and relations of the brain-chamber. With regard to the best methods of tracking and approaching elephants in the jungle, he cannot possibly do better than consult the well-known work. Thirteen Tears among the Wild Beasts of India, of the sportsman last named.
Allusion has already been made to the fits of passion which occur in elephants when mast; but the following remarkable instance of a wild elephant trying conclusions with a railway train, which occurred at Perak, in the Malay Peninsula, on i8th August 1899, i^ worthy of special mention. According to an article in The Asian newspaper of 21st November in the same year, it seems that " the duel occurred in broad daylight, and the elephant was the deliberate aggressor. It appears that the engine-driver, seeing a big tusker ahead on the permanent way, brought his train (a goods) to a standstill ; whereupon the tusker, encouraged by his strange enemy's unwillingness to attack, took the offensive and charged bravely, so bravely that he knocked his tusks to pieces and injured his head, doing, as may be supposed, commensurate damage to the engine. For over an hour, says the story, the elephant held the position, charging repeatedly ; when the driver backed his engine the elephant stood aside, but the moment it advanced he renewed the attack. A truly resolute elephant this, for when he had
The Elephant 17
battered his head sore upon the engine, he turned his hind quarters to it and endeavoured thus to overcome it !"
Later on in the same article it is stated that " on the night of the i6th of September 1892 an elephant, described as ' not a very old one,' forced his way through the fence near Okturn station on the Rangoon-Mandalay Railway, and strolling up the embankment got upon the metals just as the Mandalay mail came at full speed round a curve. Probably he was utterly bewildered by the rush and roar, with its accompaniment of blazing lamp and spark-showers. At all events he stood his ground and received the attack on his head, with the result that his skull was literally shattered and his carcase thrown over the embankment, the train passing on its way without injury. The fact that the line ran on the top of an embankment at the spot where this encounter took place was probably an important factor in securing the safety of the train. If the collision had occurred in a narrow cutting the elephant's carcase must have derailed the train, and probably caused a serious accident. Yet there recurs to mind particulars of the railway accident which occurred on the night of 28th September 1892. The Bengal-Nagpur up-mail, while travelling at speed about half- past nine through the jungles which flank the line between Gaikara and Monarpur, came suddenly in collision with an elephant. Needless to say it was a pitch dark night. The engine appears to have struck the beast on the flank, for the cowcatcher swept him clean off his legs, and he rested partially on the foot-plate until the driver reduced speed and his body slid down in front of the engine, which now pushed him along the metals, mangling him in a terrible fashion before it pushed his remains aside over the embankment. The train was travelling at a rate of 30 miles an hour, and the elephant was a very big bull, with tusks 6 feet long, and although his weight before the engine helped the brake to stop the train, it was derailed before it could be brought to a standstill. This collision took place on an embankment. It was sheer good luck that the engine
D
1 8 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
took the elephant fair and square as it did. The remains of the elephant were found dead at the foot of the embankment next morning ; the engine lost both its head-lights in the encounter, the brake gear was injured, and the smoke-box door partially battered in."
Before concluding the subject of elephants it may be mentioned that these animals are peculiar among existing warm-blooded quadrupeds for the almost vertical position occupied by the bones of the limbs. " The motions and positions of the elephant's limb," remarks Professor H. F. Osborn, " as shown by instantaneous photography, are very surprising. It is safe to say that the study of the skeleton alone would have given us a very faulty conception of the animal. The two most striking features are the great play of the wrist-joint and the straightness of the limbs. ... In standing, the bones of the fore-limb are in a nearly vertical line from the scapula [shoulder-blade] downwards. The elbow-joint is, in fact, much straighter in extreme extension than we should have inferred experimentally by fitting the bones of the arm and fore-arm together."
THE INDIAN RHINOCEROS
[Rhinoceros umcornis)
Native Names. — Gauuia and Gargadan, Hindustani ; Karkadan, Punjabi ; Gonda, Bengali
(Plate I. Fig. 2)
No one is likely to confound a " rhino " with a giraffe, and yet these are the only two groups of living animals furnished with a horn situated in the middle line of the skull. ^ The horn of a giraffe is, however, very
^ The southern right-whale has a curious warty protuberance on its nose, which recalls a blunted
The Indian Rhinoceros 19
unlike the horn (or horns) of a rhino, being composed of a boss of bone, covered with skin, and situated on the forehead of the skull, to which in adult age it is immovably attached. In all living rhinos, on the other hand, the horn (or horns) is composed of agglutinated hairs, and has no firm attachment to the bones of the skull, which are merely roughened and somewhat elevated so as to fit into the concave base of the solid horn. As Sir Samuel Baker has well remarked, the attachment of the horn of a rhino to the skull is very like that of the leaves of an artichoke to the " choke." In those species of living rhinoceros in which there is but a single horn, this is always placed immediately above the nose, and it is only in the two-horned species that there is a horn on the forehead, comparable in position with the girafi^e's median horn. There is, how- ever, an extinct European rhinoceros with a single horn having the same situation as the latter. An equally marked structural difference obtains between the solid hair-like horn of a rhino and the hollow horn of an ox, sheep, or antelope on the one hand, and the entirely bony antler of a deer, so that these appendages are absolutely distinctive of the former animals. It happens, however, that the female of the Javan rhinoceros is frequently more or less completely hornless, and since the same condition obtained in both sexes of certain extinct species (some of which are found in India), it is obvious that other characters must be sought in order to properly define these animals.
Rhinoceroses, then, are huge, clumsily-built animals, with long bodies, large heads, surmounted by the aforesaid horn or horns, short and thick legs, and sparsely-haired or naked skins of great thickness. In all the living species there are three toes to each foot, each encased in a small hoof-like nail at its termination, and the middle one being larger than either of the others, and symmetrical in itself The long and low head presents a markedly concave profile, rising posteriorly into an abrupt ridge or crest, on which are situated the medium-sized and more or less tube-
20 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
like ears, whose margins are fringed with bristly hairs. Although there is no trunk, the upper lip is frequently produced into a pointed and semi- prehensile tip ; and the eyes, which are situated on the sides of the head, are small and pig-like. The cylindrical tail does not reach within some distance of the hocks ; and the cows have a pair of teats, situated in the groin.
Very characteristic, too, of rhinos are their teeth, although the number of these varies considerably in the different species, the African members of the group having none in the front of the jaws. In spite of showing minor specific modifications, the grinders, or cheek-teeth, are characterised by a very distinct pattern of grinding surface ; the essential elements in those of the upper jaw being a continuous vertical outer wall, from which proceed two transverse crests, separated by a deep open cleft, towards the inner margin of the crown. In some cases the plane of the grinding surface may be nearly horizontal, while in others it is ridged ; and the transverse crests and inner surface of the outer wall may be complicated by projections jutting into the median hollow.
Although now confined to Africa and the warmer parts of Asia, rhino- ceroses were formerly distributed over the whole of the Old World (with the exception of Australasia), where they ranged as far north as Siberia, and were likewise represented by hornless species in North America. The living species may therefore be regarded as survivors of a very ancient type of animal. All the three species now found in Asia are broadly distinguished from their African allies by the possession of teeth in the front of the jaws, and by their skins being thrown into a number of loose folds, instead of forming a tight-fitting jacket. It is, however, not a little remarkable that India was at one time the home of a two-horned extinct species [R. platyrhiiuis) closely allied, on the one hand, to the living Burchell's rhinoceros {K. simus) of South Africa, and, on the other, to the extinct woolly rhinoceros (R. antiqidtatis) of Northern Europe and Asia.
The Indian Rhinoceros 21
The Indian rhinoceros, as the present species may be called, on account of its being confined to India, is the largest of the three Asiatic species, and specially characterised by the possession of a single horn, coupled with the fact that the fold of skin in front of the shoulder is not continued across the back of the neck, and likewise by the skin of the sides of the body being thickly studded with large rounded tubercles, which have been aptly compared to the heads of the rivets in an iron boiler. Very characteristic, too, are the great folds of skin which surround the back of the head like a coif; the head itself being larger and more elevated at the ears than in either of the other two Asiatic species of the genus.
With the exception of a fringe on the margins of the ears, and some bristly hairs on the tail, the coarse and massive skin of this ponderous brute is completely nude, the aforesaid tubercles attaining their maximum development on the shoulders, thighs, and hind-quarters, where they not unfrequently measure fully an inch in diameter. On the limbs the place of these tubercles is taken by a number of small many-sided scales. The main folds in the skin of the body are three in number ; namely, one in front of the shoulder, a second behind the same, and a third in front ot the thighs and hind-quarters, the second and third of these alone being con- tinued across the back, the first inclining backwards towards the second and dying out on the shoulder. In addition to the aforesaid coif-like folds around the head, a deep horizontal pleat separates the shoulder-shield from the fore-leg, while a similar fold divides the rump-shield from the hind limb. Folds also occur on the hinder border of the rump-shield, so that the tail is neatly enclosed in a deep groove, in such a manner that only its terminal portion is visible in a side view of the animal. The horn, although never attaining dimensions anything approaching those of the front horn of the African species, is well developed in both sexes ; and the general colour of the skin is uniformly blackish grey, showing more or less of pink on the margins of the folds.
22 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
A male measured by General A. A. Kinloch stood 5 feet 9 inches at the shoulder, and was 10^ feet in length from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail ; the tail itself being 2 feet 5 inches in length. These dimensions are the largest given by Mr. W. T. Blanford in the Fauna of British India — Mammals. Much larger dimensions are, however, recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward in the third edition of Records of Big Game, in the case of specimens shot by the Maharaja of Kuch Behar ; the height in three specimens being respectively 6 feet 4 inches, 6 feet i inch, and 6 feet ^ inch ; the length of the head and body 1 1 feet 1 1 inches, 1 1 feet 2 inches, and 11 feet 8 inches; and the total length 14 feet i inch, 13 feet 2 inches, and 13 feet 10 inches, in the same three examples.
As a rule, the length of the horn does not exceed about a foot. Mr. Rowland Ward records, however, a length of 24 inches in a specimen formerly in the possession of the late Dr. Jerdon, and assigned to the present species ; and 19^ inches is the length of a horn in the British Museum. A specimen measuring 19 inches, which comes next on Mr. Ward's list, is stated to be from Burma, and therefore, if the locality be correct, must belong to another species. Three specimens of 16 inches, or over, are recorded from Assam and Kuch Behar. Recently the Maharaja of Kuch Behar obtained a female horn measuring i6\ inches in length, which is the record tor that sex.
As regards its teeth, the Indian rhinoceros has usually one pair of upper and two of lower incisors ; the outermost pair of the latter being large, tusk-like, and projecting from the angles of the lower jaw, so as to form formidable weapons of offence when wielded by an animal of the weight and strength of the present species. The cheek-teeth are characterised by their flat plane of wear and complex pattern, the former feature being indicative of grass-eating habits on the part of their owner. Teeth of this type have been discovered in Madras and at Bunda, in the North-West Provinces, as well as in the river-gravels of the Narbada
The Indian Rhinoceros 23
valley, and may be taken to indicate that the range of the species included these parts of India. There is historical evidence to prove that during the early part of the sixteenth century the Indian rhinoceros was common in the Punjab, where it extended across the Indus as far as Peshawur ; and down to the middle of the present century, or even later, it was to be met with along the foot of the Himalaya as far west as Rohilcund and Nepal, and it survived longer still in the Terai-lands of Sikhim. Not improbably, too, the rhinoceroses found till about the year 1850 in the grass-jungles of the Rajmehal Hills, in Bengal, belonged to the present species. Now however, this huge animal has retreated almost, if not entirely, to the eastward of the Tista valley, on the borders of Kuch Behar ; its main strongholds being the great grass-jungles of that province and of Assam.
In these jungles the Indian rhino (which, by the way, is the rhinoceros par excellence^ being the type ot the Linnean genus ot that name) not only dwells, but is as completely concealed therein as is a rabbit in a cornfield. To those who have never seen an Indian grass-jungle, it may seem incredible that such a huge animal should be hidden by such covert, but when it is realised that the grass of which they are formed grows to a height of between 10 and 20 feet, the difficulty vanishes. As a matter of fact, the rhinoceros, like the Indian buffalo, makes regular tunnels, or " runs," among this gigantic grass ; and from these retreats it may be driven out by beating with a line of elephants, or by tracking it up on foot. When driven into the open, the animal will often stand for a few minutes, shaking its ears, before it makes up its mind in which direction to flee. A calf and its mother will of course issue forth together, but the old bulls and cows keep mostly apart, although both may have their home in the same patch of jungle. Those who have seen an Indian rhino careering round its enclosure at the " Zoo " after a mud-bath, with its heavy, lumbering gallop, will not fail to realise that a charge from such a monster must be a serious matter. Fortunately, however, in spite of
24 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
stories to the contrary, the creature in its wild state appears to be ot a mild and harmless disposition, seeking rather to escape from its enemies by flight than to rout them by attack. When badly wounded, or so hustled about by elephants and beaters as to become bewildered, a rhino will however, occasionally charge home. In such onslaughts it is the common belief that the animal, like its African cousins, uses its horn as its weapon of offence ; but this appears to be one of the numerous popular errors in natural history, and it is stated by competent authorities that the real weapons are the triangular and sharply-pointed lower tusks. With these a sweeping cut can be made in the leg of an elephant, in much the same way as a boar rips up a horse. Probably all the Asiatic members of the genus attack in the same fashion.
Like all its kindred, the Indian rhinoceros dearly loves a mud-bath, and when plastered over with the odoriferous mud of some swamp or pool, is even a more unprepossessing creature than ordinary. Its favourite haunts are generally in the near neighbourhood of swamps ; and hilly districts are studiously avoided by this species. K4orning and evening are its chief feeding-times, the heat of the day being generally passed in slumber. As already stated, the structure of its teeth indicates that its food is chiefly grass ; and such observations as have been made confirm the truth of this inference. Individuals have lived for over twenty years in the London "Zoo," and it is stated that others have been known to have been kept in confinement for fully fifty years. Consequently, there is no doubt that the animal is very long-lived, Brian Hodgson suggesting that its term of life may reach as much as a century. The cow gives birth to a single young one at a time, but information is required in regard to the duration ot the period of gestation and the frequency with which births take place.
It was an old idea that the hide of the Indian rhinoceros was bullet- proof; but this was erroneous even in regard to such antiquated weapons as the military " Brown Bess." As trophies, sportsmen may preserve
6c Small Game of India 6cc . Plate 1.
L^;i>^ Pailislvid, hy XmlanA Vlard, lU
PLATE I
1. Indian Elephant. 4. Sumatran Rhinoceros.'
2. Indian Rhinoceros. 5. Malay Tapir.
3. Javan Rhinoceros. 6. Kiang.
From a Malay specimen. The Malay animal differs from the chestnut-haired Indian form by its black hair, and probably represents a distinct race {R. sumatreiisis n'lger).
The Javan Rhinoceros 25
either the entire head or the horn alone ; in addition to which a shield- shaped piece of skin is frequently cut from the under surface of the body, where it is thinner than elsewhere, and kept as a memento of a successful " shikar." Kuch Behar is now one of the great centres for rhino-shooting, fine specimens having been obtained by the Maharaja himself It was in this territory that the Duke of Portland obtained his specimens in 1882. Shooting females is strictly prohibited in Kuch Behar, as it probably also is in Assam.
There is no evidence that this rhinoceros was ever found in Ceylon (where, indeed, the genus is unknown), or in the countries to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, so that it is one of the comparatively few species of large animals strictly confined to the peninsula of India.
THE JAVAN RHINOCEROS
{RhinoctTos sondaicus)
Native Names. — Gainda, Hindustani; Gonda, Bengali; Kunda, Kedi, AND Kweda OF THE Nagas ; Kyefig and Kyan-tsheni, Burmese ; Badak, Malay
(Plate I. Fig. 3)
Although possessing but a single horn, the Javan rhinoceros is a very different beast, both externally and in its internal anatomy, to the preceding species. In the first place, although measurements of adult males are still required, it is a somewhat smaller and lighter-built animal, with a relatively less bulky and less elevated head. Then, too, the folds of skin round the neck are much less developed, and the body- fold on the shoulders is continued right across the back in the same manner as are the other two great folds. Moreover, owing to the
E
26 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
absence of the deep groove on the rump, the tail stands out quite distinct from the hind-quarters, so that its whole extent is exposed in a side view of the animal. Very characteristic, also, is the structure of the skin, which lacks the " boiler- rivets " of the great Indian species, and is marked all over with a kind of mosaic -like pattern, caused by the presence of a network of fine cracks in the superficial layer. A piece of skin cut from any part of the body is therefore amply sufficient to determine to which of the two species it pertained.
Yet another peculiarity of the Javan rhinoceros is to be found in the frequent, if not invariable, absence of the horn in the female. Male horns of between lo and ii inches in length are recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward in Records of Big Game. In the same work, under the head of R. unicornis., reference is made to a horn of 12 inches in length belonging to an individual shot by General Kinloch in the Bhutan Duars. This animal is, however, probably the one alluded to by Mr. Blanford as having been killed in the Sikhim Terai, and assigned to the present species.
As regards the height of the animal, the most authentic measurement of a wild specimen is that of a female, which stood 5^ feet at the shoulder ; males must almost certainly attain larger dimensions.
It remains to mention that the present species is of the same dusky- grey colour as the last, and that its hide is equally devoid of hair. Its teeth, although numerically the same as in the Indian rhinoceros, show a simpler pattern in those of the cheek series, while their crowns wear into ridges, instead of a uniformly flat plane. This may be taken to indicate that the present species feeds chiefly upon twigs and leaves.
Typically an inhabitant of Java, this rhinoceros is also found in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, as well as in the Malay Peninsula, whence it extends northwards through Burma into Assam, and so into Eastern Bengal and the Sandarbans. As already mentioned, it has been killed as
The Sumatran Rhinoceros 27
far west as the Sikhim Terai. So far as present information goes, the mainland form cannot be distinguished from those inhabiting the Malay islands, so that separate local races cannot yet be differentiated. It is, however, by no means unlikely that this is due to the want of a good series of specimens ; and it may be mentioned, as a circumstance by no means creditable to sportsmen, that at the present time the British Museum has, in addition to skulls and skeletons, only the skin of a young calf in a condition fit for public exhibition.
Although found in the swampy Sandarbans of Lower Bengal, within a day's journey of Calcutta, the Javan rhinoceros usually prefers forest tracts to grass-jungles, and is very generally met with in hilly districts, apparently ascending in some portions of its habitat to an elevation of several thousand teet above the sea- level. In most other respects the mode of life of this species is probably very similar to that of its larger relative ; its disposition is, however, stated to be more gentle, and in Java tame individuals are frequently to be seen wandering about the villages of the natives.
HAIRY-EARED SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS
[R/iii!oce!'os sumatrcnsis lasiotis)
Native Names. — Kyan and Kyan-shaii\ Burmese ; BaJak, Malay
(Plate I. Fig. 4)
Although possessed of two horns, the Sumatran rhinoceros resembles its Asiatic brethren in having teeth in the front of the jaws, as well as by its folded skin, and has therefore nothing to do with the African representatives of the fimily. As compared with the other Asiatic species, the presence of an additional horn, coupled with the fact that
28 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
it has only a single pair of lower front teeth (the small central pair occurring between the tusks in the other two species being absent), afford ample grounds for regarding this rhinoceros as the representative of a group by itself; and it is noteworthy that an extinct rhinoceros whose remains are met with on the continent of Europe appears to be another member of the same group of the genus.
To distinguish the present species from all its relatives, it is really sufficient to say that it is the only living rhino with two horns and a folded skin ; but since it is an animal by no means familiar to the majority of sportsmen, it is advisable to enter somewhat into details. In the first place, then, this species has the distinction of being the smallest of living rhinos, as it is by far the most hairy, its usual height at the shoulder not being more than 4 to 4^ feet, and the length from the tip of the muzzle to the root of the tail only about 8 feet. Some female specimens even fall short of the foregoing dimensions, an old individual of the typical race from the Malay Peninsula being only 3 feet 8 inches at the withers. The weight of the animal has been estimated at a couple of thousand pounds.
As though suggestive of a transition towards the smooth -skinned rhinos of Africa, the folds in the skin of the present species are much less pronounced than in the other Asiatic kinds ; and of the three main folds, only one, namely, that situated behind the shoulder, is continued across the back. In structure, the outer surface of the skin is finely granular ; and its colour, which varies from an earthy -brown almost to black, is likewise quite different from that of either of the one- horned species. Hair is developed sparsely all over the head and body, but attains its maximum development on the ears and the tail, its colour varying from brown to black. At their base the two horns are separated from one another by a considerable interval ; and although in captive individuals they are generally much worn down, when fully developed
The Sumatran Rhinoceros 29
they are slender for the greater part of their length, the front one curving backwards in an elegant sweep, and attaining a very considerable size. The longest known specimen of the front horn is in the British Museum, and has a length of 32^ inches, with a basal girth of ij'-^ inches ; a second specimen in the same collection measuring zj^ inches in length and 17I in circumference.
As regards the cheek-teeth, those of the upper jaw are practically indistinguishable from the corresponding molars of the Javan rhinoceros, and may accordingly be taken as indicative of the leaf and twig-eating propensities of this species.
The Sumatran rhinoceros occurs typically in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, and is likewise met with in the Malay Peninsula. Thence it extends northwards through Burma and Tenasserim to Chittagong and Assam ; and it also occurs in Siam. Compared with the typical Sumatran animal [R. siimatrensis typicus), a specimen from Chittagong, till recently living in the London Zoological Gardens, was found to be distinguishable by its superior dimensions, paler and browner hair, shorter and more fully tutted tail, and the strongly developed fringe on the margins of the ears, the interior of which was bare. The skull, too, was proportionately broader ; but this, in spite of assertions to the contrary, seems to be a feature of minor import. On account of these differences the Chittagong rhinoceros was regarded by its describer, Mr. P. L. Sclater, as a distinct species ; but it can scarcely be regarded as more than a local race, which somewhere in Burma probably passes into the typical form. Other specimens of the hairy-eared race have been subsequently obtained in Assam, where the species is rare ; and one example has been killed in Tippera, and a second in the Bhutan Duars.
In habits the Sumatran rhinoceros appears to be very similar to the Javan species ; both affecting forested hill-country, which may be at a considerable altitude above the sea. In the Mergui Archipelago a rhino.
30 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
which may be this species, is stated to have been seen swimming from island to island ; and it is probable that all the Asiatic representatives of the family will take readily to the water, although in Somaliland the common African rhinoceros is found in absolutely arid districts, where it cannot even drink for long periods.
The type specimen of this race of the Sumatran rhinoceros was a female, captured at Chittagong in the year 1868. When discovered by native hunters she was embedded in a quicksand, and well-nigh exhausted by her struggles to reach terra Jirma. By attaching ropes to her neck she was safely extricated from her perilous position, and securely fastened to a tree, where next morning she was found so refreshed and so violent that her captors were afraid to make a near approach. Accordingly, a report of the capture was sent in to Chittagong, and soon after a couple of English officials arrived with elephants, to one of which the rhino was made fast, and, after some trouble, marched into the station, where she soon became very tame. Eventually she was secured for the menagerie of the London Zoological Society, in whose Proceedings for 1872 her coloured portrait appeared. By a lucky coincidence, a specimen of the typical representative of the species was procured by the Society at the close of 1872, so that the two forms were exhibited side by side in the menagerie. While in the docks the Chittagong animal gave birth to a young one ; and from certain facts that came to his knowledge, the late Mr. A. D. Bartlett (who has given an interesting account of the circum- stance) was led to the conclusion that the period of gestation in the species was only a little over seven months. She died in the autumn of 1900. It should be added that Mr. J. Cockburn (who wrote on the subject in The Asian newspaper of 20th July 1880) is entitled to the credit of recognising that the present form, instead of being entitled to rank as a species by itself, is a local race of the Sumatran rhinoceros ; his view being adopted by Mr. W. T. Blanford in the Fauna of British India.
The Malay Tapir 31
THE MALAY TAPIR
( Tapirus indicus)
Native Names. — Tara-shii^ Burmese ; Kuda-ayer and Tennu, Malay (Plate I. Fig. 5)
Together with the zebras and wild asses, the tapirs (as they are called by an abbreviation of the native name of one of the South American species) offer but little attraction to the sportsman, since they yield nothing in the way of trophies save their skulls and skins, and the latter are valuable only as leather. Nevertheless, they are animals by no means lacking in interest, if only from the point of view of their very remarkable geographical distribution. Although the common South American tapir was known by repute to the Swiss naturalist Linne, who at first described it as a terrestrial species of hippopotamus, but afterwards had doubts as to its very existence, it was not till the year 1816 that naturalists were made aware that another species inhabited the jungles of the Malay Peninsula. For this important information they were indebted to a Major Farquhar, who described with some care an individual then living in the menagerie of the Governor-General of India at Barrackpur, although he unfortunately omitted to assign to the Oriental species a distinctive scientific name.
This discovery revealed the singular fact that tapirs are common to the Malay countries and South and Central America, but at the present day are found in no other part of the world. And were it not for the investi- gations into the past history of the inhabitants of our globe, we should have been at a loss to explain such a very remarkable instance of what naturalists call discontinuous distribution. But the researches in question have revealed the fact that in past epochs these animals were distributed
32 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
over a considerable portion of the northern hemisphere, whence they wandered southwards to their present widely sundered dwelling-places.
Although in Asia, at any rate, animals that but seldom come under the ken of the sportsman in their wild condition, tapirs have been made familiar to the public from the specimens exhibited in our menageries and museums. In size they may be compared to heavily-built and short- limbed donkeys, but from their comparatively bare skins, general shape, and long flexible snouts, they present a superficial resemblance to large swine, with which group of animals many persons are inclined to associate them. An examination of their feet, in which one toe is much larger than either of the others, and symmetrical in itself, is, however, sufficient to show the incorrectness of this idea, and to indicate that their true relationship is with the rhinoceros.
Unlike the latter animals, tapirs have, however, four toes on the front feet, although in the hind feet the number is three in both groups. From the rhinoceroses, the present animals are likewise distinguished by the production of the nose and upper lip into a short, mobile proboscis, or trunk. The teeth, too, are quite difi^erent, both in number and form, from those of the last-mentioned groups, their total number being forty-two. Both jaws are furnished with a full set of incisors, or "nippers," and tusks ; while the cheek-teeth present a pattern quite different from that obtaining among the rhinoceroses. Tapirs have the tail short, the ears of medium size and oval shape, small, pig-like eyes, and short, sparse hair.
The Malay species, which is the largest of its kind, is readily dis- tinguished from its South American cousins by its parti-coloured hide ; the head, limbs, and front part of the body being dark brown or black, while all that portion of the body situated behind the shoulders, including the rump and the upper part of the thighs, together with the tips of the ears, is greyish white or white in the adult. In very young animals, on the other hand, that is to say, those not exceeding from four to six months
The Malay Tapir 33
in age, the ground-colour is blackish brown or black, upon which are spots and longitudinal streaks of yellow on the head and sides and of white on the under-parts. The hair, too, is markedly denser than in the full-grown animal. In height an adult Malay tapir will stand from 3 to 3-^ feet at the withers and about 4 inches more at the rump ; while the length from the tip of the snout to the root of the tail, measured along the curves of the body, will be about 8 feet.
The geographical distribution of this animal includes the island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and thence northwards into the Tenasserim province about as far as the fifteenth parallel of north latitude.
In its wild state, little or nothing authentic has been ascertained with regard to the mode of life of the Malay tapir ; and the writer is un- acquainted with any account of the chase of this animal by European sportsmen. Its habits, are, however, in all probability very similar to those of the American representatives of the genus. These latter are shy and retiring animals, dwelling amid thick jungle in the neighbourhood of water, to which they take readily. Between the years 1840 and 1896 seven examples of the Malay tapir have been exhibited in the Menagerie of the London Zoological Society. The majority have, how- ever, survived but a short period in that establishment, at least two of them dying within a year of the time of their acquisition.
34 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
THE KIANG, OR TIBETAN WILD ASS
[Eqims he II! /onus)
Native Name. — Kiang, Tibetan
(Plate I. Fig. 6)
It was long considered by naturalists that there were at least three distinct species of wild ass in iVsia, but fuller materials have led to the conclusion that these are but local races of a single species, the Asiatic wild ass, of which the kiang of Ladak and Tibet is the typical repre- sentative, so that its full title should be TLquiis hemioiuis typiciis. The North African and the Asiatic wild asses have by some writers been separated as a genus by themselves [Asiiiiis], while their near relatives, the zebras (with which they are intimately connected through the now extinct quagga) have been made the type of yet another genus, under the name of Wppotigris. Both asses and zebras differ from the horse by the shorter and upright mane, the less abundant development of long hair on the tail, and likewise by the absence of warty pads on the inner side of the hind-leg, although such are present on the fore-legs of all the members of the family. Such differences are, however, but slight, and it seems better to regard the horse, the zebras, and the asses as respectively representing three subgeneric groups of one and the same genus ; the asses being distinguishable from the zebras by the reduction of the dark markings on the body to a dorsal streak and a shoulder-stripe (the latter of which may be wanting), and the unstriped head. It may be added that the com- paratively short hairs of the mane of the asses and zebras are annually shed, whereas the long mane-hairs of the horse are persistent. The Asiatic wild ass differs from its African cousin (of which the domesticated breeds
The Kiang
35
are but more or less degenerate descendants) by the relatively shorter ears and the redder tone of coloration.
In general colour the Asiatic wild ass (inclusive of its various races) varies from a greyish fawn, or isabelline, to bright chestnut on the upper-parts ; the muzzle, throat, chest, under-parts, and inner surface
-The Kiang, from a specimen living at Wobur Photographed by the Duchess of Bedford.
Abbey.
of the limbs being pure white. Along the back, from the nape of the neck to the root of the tail, runs a dark brown stripe of variable width, which has sometimes a whitish margin on each side ; this stripe including the mane, and extending partly on to the tail, the tip of which is blackish. A dark transverse shoulder-stripe may sometimes be present ; and it is stated that faint traces of dark barrings are visible
36 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
on the limbs. The height is given by Mr. Blanford as ranging between 3 feet 8 inches and 4 feet (11 and 12 hands), but Mr. Sterndale states that the kiang may stand as much as 14 hands, this being probably nearer to the truth.
The kiang, or typical race, of the species is specially distinguished by its darker and redder colour, and the narrower dorsal stripe ; while it is certainly larger than some representatives of the other races. A mounted specimen in the British Museum, shot in Ladak by Mr. Powell- Cotton, stands 4 feet 5 inches (13 hands i inch) at the withers. In summer the coat is short, fine, and sleek, but in winter it is longer, coarser, and curly, with a tendency to a woolly character. Whether similar differences occur between the winter and summer coats of the Baluchi race remains to be ascertained, but it is quite probable that they are not so marked.
The kiang inhabits the higher desert tracts of Ladak and Tibet, from about 13,000 to 18,000 feet above the sea, or even more; and is found commonly in the Chang -chenmo valley, as well as on the Indus itself some few days' march above the town of Leh. Here it is generally met with in small troops, but sometimes singly ; and in districts where it has not been much disturbed displays but little fear, galloping in circles round the mounted traveller as he approaches its haunts. Young individuals sometimes display a curiosity which overcomes all sense of fear ; one (whose skull is now in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) having on a certain occasion rashly ventured into the writer's camp in Chang-chenmo. Across their rough native country these animals are wonderful goers, their hoofs being as hard as iron ; and could they only be properly domesticated, they would be invaluable as beasts of transport across these dreary elevated regions, where ponies often succumb to the climate and want of proper food. Being able to subsist on the scrubby herbage, they would be far more useful than
The Kiang 37
yaks, which cannot do without grass. But, ahhough the individual at Woburn Abbey whose portrait is here given is fairly amenable to discipline, kiang, as a rule, refuse to submit themselves to the hard- ships of servitude ; the writer having a vivid recollection of the malignant disposition of a specimen kept in captivity by the Governor of Ladak in the seventies.
Much good ink has been wasted by sportsmen in a fruitless discussion as to whether the kiang is a horse or a donkey, the point at issue being whether it brays or neighs. Whatever may be the proper term to apply to its cry (which has been described as a shrieking bray), there can be no doubt, from its bodily conformation, that it comes under the designation of an ass, although in its shorter ears it is a little more horse- like than its African cousin.
As an animal of sport, little can be said in favour of the kiang, as it yields no trophies, and can be easily approached within 150 yards, or even less, when a well-placed Lee-Metford bullet should drop it dead in its tracks, or at all events after a short run. Many sportsmen shoot a specimen or two, and bring back the hide or skull, or both ; but this much generally suffices for most men. But in addition to being nothing of a catch for the sportsman, the kiang is very frequently a positive detrimental to those in quest of nobler game, such as argali. By careering wildly about in the neighbourhood of the stalker, kiang render all the animals within sight suspicious of danger, even although their human foe may be most carefully concealed from their view. In such cases an apparently favourable stalk may frequently be brought to an abrupt conclusion by the sudden disappearance of the game, which have taken alarm from the movements of the kiang.
Whether, in the rare atmosphere of the elevated regions in which it dwells, the kiang is as fleet an animal as the wild ass of Baluchistan and Kutch, has not yet been determined. Neither have we, apparently, any
38 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
definite intormation as to the season when the foals are dropped, and the length of the period of gestation. The latter is, however, probably much the same as in the mare and the domestic ass, and the young are almost certainly born during the summer. Both the wiry grass of Ladak and various dwarf scrubby plants serve as the chief food of the kiang.
THE GHORKHAR, OR BALUCHI WILD ASS
[Eqiii/s hemioniis oiiager)
Native Names. — Ghor-khar, Persian and Hindustani ; Ghiir and Gluirdu, Baluchi
As already mentioned, the wild ass of Baluchistan and the districts of Western India is only a local race of Equi/s hemioniis, and not a species by itself From the kiang, or typical representative of the species, it is distinguished by its duller and less rutous colour, and also by the greater breadth of the brown stripe down the back, which is always distinctly margined on both sides by a narrow white or whitish line. An adult female shot by Mr. W. T. Blanford in 1882 measured 3 feet 10 inches at the withers.
The ghorkhar is a dweller in the sandy deserts of Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and other districts on the west of the Indus, — Mithankot, on the Punjab frontier, being a noted locality for these animals. But they are by no means restricted to the trans- Indus districts, a certain number being met with to the eastward of that river, in the Bickanir desert, Jesalmere, and that dreary tract of salt-pans known as the Rann of Kutch. From Baluchistan, where they are comparatively rare, wild asses extend into Persia and Syria ; the Persian form (£. hemionus hemippiis) being regarded by naturalists as a distinct race, although evidently very close to the ghorkhar, with which, indeed, it probably intergrades.
The Ghorkhar 39
The Baluchi wild ass appears to be a much more gregarious animal than its Tibetan relative, thirty or forty head being frequently seen in a troop ; and Dr. J. Aitchison, when on the Afghan Delimitation Commission, states that in North -Western Afghanistan, during the month of April, he encountered a troop which he estimated to include about a thousand individuals.
In the trans-Indus districts the mares of this race give birth to their foals during the summer, from June to August. The horsemen of the Rann of Kutch appear to take advantage of the mares when in foal by riding them down and spearing them ; Mr. Blanford believing that this feat (which is certainly practised) could not be accomplished under any other circumstances, on account of the extreme fleetness of these animals. Baluchis, mounted on their swift mares, capture young ghorkhar by riding after them in relays, sometimes with the aid of greyhounds, until they succumb from sheer exhaustion. Probably in certain parts of their habitat, such as the Rann of Kutch, where, at certain seasons, there is no water but such as is salt, ghorkhar must go for considerable periods without drinking. Like the kiang, these wild asses, in spite ot their fleetness of foot, are by no means well-bred-looking animals, the head being disproportionately large and heavy, as well as ungracefully carried.
40 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
THE GAUR, OR (SO-CALLED) INDIAN BISON
[Bos gaiiriis)
Native Names. — Gaiir and Gaiiri-gai, Hindustani ; Gayal in Orissa ; Gaor (male) and Gaib (female) in Chutia Nagpur ; Saiiial, Ho-kol ; Gaviya, Mahrathi ; Pera-mao of the Southern Gonds ; Katii- erifnai, Tamil ; Karkofia, Karti, Kard-yemme, Kard-korna and Doddu, Canarese ; Karthu and Paothii, Malabari ; Mithan, Assamese ; Selori IN Chittagong ; P young, Burmese ; Saiadang, Malay
(Plate II. Figs, i, i^)
In addition to the foregoing sufficiently heavy list of designations, the great wild ox of India is frequently called in various parts of the peninsula by several names meaning wild buffalo. By English sportsmen, on the other hand, this magnificent animal is almost invariably called bison — a title properly belonging to Bos bonasiis of Lithuania and the Caucasus. Questions are sometimes asked in sporting newspapers whether the application of the term bison to the gaur is legitimate. The answer is very simple, namely, that it is not. Domesticated oxen (together with their extinct wild progenitors), gaur and gayal, bison, yak, and buffaloes collectively constitute the ox tribe. And since the domesticated ox is the type of the whole group, they may all, in a general sense, be classed as oxen. Had the bison of Europe been made the typical representative of the group, then that term might likewise have been employed in the same general sense, and the gaur termed a bison as it now is an ox. But as matters stand, such a usage is totally indefensible. The true domesticated oxen form one division of the group. Next to this comes a second and nearly allied section of the group com- prising the gaur, the gayal, and the banting ; all the members of which
h
40 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
THE GAUR, OR (SO-CALLED) INDIAN BISON [Bos gaums)
Native Names. — Gaiir and Gatiri-gai, Hindustani ; Gayal in Orissa ; Gaor (male) and Gaib (female) in Chutia Nagpur ; Sainal, Ho-kol ; Gaviya, Mahrathi ; Pera-mao of the Southern Gonds ; Katu- erimai, Tamil ; Karkona, Karti, Kard-yemme, Kard-korna and Dodcfu, Canarese ; Karthii and Paothu, Malabari ; Mithan, Assamese ; Selori IN Chittagong ; Pyoung, Burmese ; Saiada?ig, Malay
(Plate II. Figs, i, i^?)
In addition to the foregoing sufficiently heavy list of designations, the great wild ox of India is frequently called in various parts of the peninsula by several names meaning wild buffalo. By English sportsmen, on the other hand, this magnificent animal is almost invariably called bison — a title properly belonging to Bos bonasus of Lithuania and the Caucasus. Questions are sometimes asked in sporting newspapers whether the application of the term bison to the gaur is legitimate. The answer is very simple, namely, that it is not. Domesticated oxen (together with their extinct wild progenitors), gaur and gayal, bison, yak, and buffaloes collectively constitute the ox tribe. And since the domesticated ox is the type of the whole group, they may all, in a general sense, be classed as oxen. Had the bison of Europe been made the typical representative of the group, then that term might likewise have been employed in the same general sense, and the gaur termed a bison as it now is an ox. But as matters stand, such a usage is totally indefensible. The true domesticated oxen form one division of the group. Next to this comes a second and nearly allied section of the group com- prising the gaur, the gayal, and the banting ; all the members of which
42 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
are characterised by their elevated withers, short hair, and " white- stockinged " limbs. The third section includes the European and American bisons (the former commonly miscalled aurochs, and the latter buffalo), with which the yak may perhaps be included, all these having long hair on some part of the body, uniformly dark limbs, and lacking the ridge-like hump of the second section. Lastly, there are the buffaloes, differing from all the others by the peculiar form of their horns. Each sectional group is perfectly well defined, and it would be just as logical to call the gaur a buffalo as to dub it a bison. But since there are few things more difficult to amend than popular misapplications of names, a bison it will probably remain among sportsmen for many years to come.
Of the general characteristics of the ox tribe but little need be said here. With the exception of a few stunted island forms, the members of the group are large and heavily-built animals, with a short and deep neck, a massive head, carried somewhat low, and frequently a large dewlap on the throat and chest. The broad muzzle is devoid of hair, with a moist skin ; there are no glands on either the face or the legs or between the hoofs ; and the udders of the cows have four teats. The horns (which, in common with those of the members of the family Bovii^a; form a transversely situated pair, and consist of hollow sheaths of horn surmounting conical bony cores arising from the skull) are present in both sexes, and not very much smaller in the cows than in the bulls. They are placed on or near the vertex of the skull, where they are usually widely separated at the base. Their direction is at first more or less outwards, after which they curve upwards, and generally more or less inwards towards the tips. Although cylindrical in the more typical members of the group, in the buffaloes they become distinctly triangular in cross-section ; and while in the former they are almost completely smooth externally, in the latter they are marked with irregular transverse groovings and ridges. In colour the horns may be of any shade between olive-green and black. The ears are of medium
The Gaur 43
size and bluntly pointed ; and the long cylindrical tail is generally tufted at the tip, although in some cases long-haired throughout its length. In regard to the length and abundance of the coat, there is every gradation from the sparsely-haired hide of the buffaloes to the long-haired pelt of the yak ; there is little or no seasonal difference in the colour of the coat, which, with the occasional exception of the lower portion of the legs, and very rarely of the buttocks, is uniform. Lastly, it is important to mention that the oxen are specially characterised by the square prismatic form of their long-crowned cheek-teeth.
The group of wild oxen of which the gaur is the best-known repre- sentative is confined to the Indo-Malayan countries, and includes three species presenting a number of characters in common. Compared with the ancient wild ox of Europe, skulls and skeletons of which are preserved in our museums, these Oriental oxen are distinguished by the shorter fore- head, the nearer approximation of the eyes to the base of the horns, a more or less marked compression of the horns, especially near the base, and the relatively shorter tail, the tufted tip of which hangs but little below the level of the hocks. More important, perhaps, than all, is an elevated ridge extending from the neck and shoulders to the middle of the back, where, in its most developed condition, it forms a sudden step-like descent towards the loins. In old bulls the colour is generally blackish brown, but in cows and young bulls either a paler shade of the same or red ; the legs, from above the knees and hocks downwards, being, in both sexes and at all ages, white or yellowish. All the three species have short sleek coats, without a mane or long hair on the withers ; the hoofs in all are narrow and game- like ; and the number of pairs of ribs in the skeleton is thirteen.
Although artists, who have for the most part to make their sketches from stuffed specimens, are only too apt to give it a meek and mild expression, like a Jersey cow, the bull gaur is one of the boldest and handsomest members of the ox tribe, the late Mr. G. P. Sanderson even going so far
44 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
as to say that it " is undoubtedly the finest species of the genus Bos in the world." Standing occasionally as much as 6 feet or even 6 feet 4 inches (19 hands) ^ at the withers, although frequently not exceeding 5|- feet, the bull gaur is at once distinguishable from all its relatives by the great arched and forwardly-curving crest, which communicates a marked and distinctive concavity to the profile of the forehead, of which there is no trace in any other species. The massive horns, which are much flattened from back to front at the base, v/here they are marked by exfoliating rings, spread outwards from each side of this broad crest in a bold sweep, the curve continuing throughout their length, with the tips, when perfect, inclining inwards and slightly backwards. Very frequently, however, one or both tips are broken off" during the fierce combats for supremacy in which the bulls are wont to engage. In colour the horns are pale greenish or yellowish for the greater portion of their length, gradually passing into black at the tips. , Horns of 30 inches and over along the curve may be regarded as fine trophies, Mr. Rowland Ward recording only twenty-one specimens in which the measurement mentioned is exceeded. The " record " specimen has a length of 29\ inches along the outer curve, with a basal circumference of 20]. and a tip-to-tip interval of i8f inches; this specimen, which came, from Salwen in Burma, being in the Museum of the Natural History Society of Bombay. In the next biggest, which is from Travancore, the three dimensions mentioned above are respectively 39, i()\, and 18^ inches. The curve-lengths of the next four specimens on the list are respectively 35, 34!, 34, and 33I inches.
Regarding other features in the personal appearance of the bull gaur, it may be mentioned that while his ears are relatively large and spreading, his tail is comparatively short, only just reaching the hocks ; the dewlap,
1 Mr. Stuart-Baker {Asian, 27th Februar)- 1900) says that gaur may stand 21 hands (7 feet) in Kachar. A similar statement is made by Colonel Pollok with regard to the Burmese representative of the species, and this is confirmed by Mr. Bruce in the sequel.
The Gaur 4^
too, is, in Indian specimens at any rate, but slightly developed.^ A very marked character is the strong development of the dorsal ridge, and its very sudden termination in a step about midway between the shoulders and the root ot the tail. The general colour of the short and sleek hair, which becomes very sparse on the back of aged bulls, is olive brown, tending almost to black ; on the under-parts it becomes paler, but is golden
Fig. 4. — Skull and Horns of Cow Gaur. From a specimen in the possession of Mr. A. O. Hume.
brown at the points of origin of the legs ; the forehead, from between the eyes across the horn-crest, and so on to the nape of the neck, is ashy grey, in some instances passing into whitey brown or dirty white ; the muzzle is pale slate-coloured ; and the lower portions of the limbs, from above the knees and hocks downwards, are pure white. The iris of the eye is, in
1 In the Appendix Mr. Bruce states that full-grown Burmese bull gaur, which he describes as black, have a distinct dewlap. This may indicate that the Burmese form is a distinct race.
46 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
both sexes, light blue. In cows and young bulls the general hue is some- what paler, in some cases, especially during winter and in dry and open districts, tending to rufous. Calves have been said to show a dark dorsal streak. The horns of the cows (Plate II. Fig. la) are smaller, thinner, and less expanded than those of bulls. The longest pair of gaur horns definitely recorded as those of a cow are from Travancore, and are repre- sented in the annexed text-figure. They measure 24 inches in length along the outer curve, i 2i: in basal circumference, and 1 3 between the tips. Other specimens have been recorded, of which the respective lengths are 22, 20^, and 19^ inches.
Being essentially forest-dwelling animals, gaur are not, for the most part, found in the tall grass-jungles of the Ganges plain, which form the home of the Indian buffalo and rhinoceros, although they impinge to a certain extent into this tract along the foot of the Himalaya. Their ordinary resorts are the extensive tracts of hill-forests occurring in many parts of India, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and very probably also ot Cochin China and Siam. At the present day these fine cattle are quite unknown in any of the Indo-Malayan islands, although there is a tradition to the effect that they formerly occurred in Ceylon ; but even if such were really the case, it is quite likely that they were introduced into that island. The north-western range of the species in India is probably limited by the Rajpipla Hills, in the neighbourhood of Broach ; while to the west of the eightieth parallel of latitude the northern limit is very nearly coincident with the line of the Narbada valley. Along the foot of the Himalaya gaur are found in the forest tracts as far westward as Nepal ; while to the southward of the Ganges valley they survive in many of the forests of Chutia Nagpur, Orissa, the Northern Circars, the Central Provinces, Hyderabad, Mysore, and the Western Ghats, although from some localities they have already disappeared, and are becoming scarcer in others.
Whether gaur from the countries to the eastward of the Bay of
The Gaur 47
Bengal present such constant differences from the Indian animal as to entitle them to be regarded as representing a distinct local race cannot yet be determined, the number of specimens in our museums being insufficient for this purpose. It may be added that unless these institu- tions are " run " on very different lines from those now followed, the question is likely to remain open. The Burmese gaur has been said to be a taller animal (attaining close on 21 hands at the shoulder, according to one sportsman), with the ridge on the back extending farther towards the rump, the hollow in the forehead deeper, the crest between the horns higher, and the horns themselves heavier and thicker, with their tips seldom worn. The profile, too, of the lower portion of the face is stated to be more convex and ram-like than that of gaur from the Wynad district ; but in this respect bulls from the Western Ghats are said to be much more like Burmese examples. As regards the skull, any large series will undoubtedly display very considerable variations — some specimens from Northern India even showing, as mentioned more fully below, an approximation towards the gayal type ; but there is at present no decisive evidence that such variations, apart from the approximation to the gayal type, are correlated with locality.
Then, again, there is a question in regard to the dewlap, which, although in most cases practically wanting, is stated to be developed in certain individuals of the Travancore herds. Since, however, according to the last statement, it is, at most, only an individual peculiarity, its importance is obviously much less than that of the alleged local differences noted above.
The fact that cows and young bulls inhabiting dry and more open districts are less darkly coloured than those from dense and damp forests is an example of a very common feature among animals.
In spite of its bulk and heavy build, the gaur is almost as active as a cat in getting over rocky country (which is the ordinary resort of the
48 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
species) ; and the manner in which a herd will make their way up an impossible-looking hill-side is little short of marvellous. Although, as already said, generally found on forest-clad hills, gaur are sometimes to be met with on the plains ; and in Mysore and the Wynad district they frequent rocky hills, whose flattened, open summits afford excellent grazing-grounds, the herds ascending to elevations of from 2500 to 6000 feet above sea-level.
In the Narbada district the habits and shikar of gaur have been admirably described by Captain Forsyth in his Highlands of Central India, while Mr. G. P. Sanderson, in Thirteen Tears among the Wild Beasts of India, has done the same for the Mysore country. Gaur are seldom seen in herds of more than twenty head, and more frequently in small parties of from five to ten. In the Western Ghats, and doubtless in other districts, they are generally to be found on the open grass-tracts for some hours after the early morning feed, but as the sun increases in power they one by one rise to their feet and seek shelter in the surround- ing forest. When driving is resorted to, the beaters should not be allowed to commence their work till the herd has in this manner betaken itself to covert ; as if driving is attempted while the animals are in the open, failure will almost certainly ensue. Moreover, it is important to ascertain that no stragglers have been left lying down in the open. The alternative to beating is by following up the animals with the aid of native trackers, such as the Bhils and Gonds.
Although the finest bulls are completely solitary, a certain number of their sex keep with the herds. In writing of the herds, Mr. Sanderson says that their members " are shy and retiring in their habits, and retreat at once if intruded upon by man. They avoid the vicinity of his dwellings, and never visit the patches of cultivation in the jungle, as do wild elephants, deer, and wild hog. . . . The food of the gaur,^ as of
' In these extracts "Gaur" is substituted for "Bison."
The Gaur 49
the wild elephant, consists chiefly of grasses, and only in a secondary degree of bamboo- leaves and twigs, the thick and succulent tuberous shoots of the bamboo which appear during the rains, and of the bark ot some trees. . . . Gaur feed till about nine in the morning, or later in cloudy and rainy weather ; they then rest, lying down in bamboo-covert or light forest till the afternoon, when they rise to graze and drink ; they also invariably lie down for some hours during the night. Although certainly quick in detecting an intruder, gaur can scarcely be considered naturally wary animals, as they seldom encounter alarms. Unsophisticated herds will frequently allow several shots to be flred at them before making off, and even then probably will not go far. But if subjected to frequent disturbance, they quickly become as shy as deer. ... I have never known a case of herd-gaur attacking man, except such individuals as were wounded, and, being pursued, found themselves unable to escape."
The narrator then proceeds to state that in many of their habits gaur resemble elephants, and that herds of both may not infrequently be seen feeding together. Solitary bulls, which often show their age by the number of scars they bear on their nearly hairless hides, have a bad reputation for ferocity, being commonly reported to charge without provocation. While admitting that this is to a certain degree the case, Mr. Sanderson accounts for it by their greater liability to being suddenly surprised while reposing than are the members of a herd, some ot whom are always on the watch. And when thus surprised, like other animals, they not uncommonly " go for " the disturber of their slumbers.
The following measurements of gaur horns from Northern India are given by Mr. Stuart-Baker, and may prove of interest to sportsmen.
In one head the dimensions are : — " Tip to tip round sweep . . . . -75 ii'"--hes.
Base of right horn in girth . . . . 2 2^ „
„ left horn . . . . . 2 2§ „
Greatest expanse . . . . ■ 47 "
50 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
" Measured ten days after being shot.
" Another longer but lighter head measures —
|
Tip to tip round sweep . |
. 861 inches. |
|
Base to tip of right horn |
- 37 |
|
left horn . |
• 37i . |
|
Girth of right horn at base |
• i9i . |
|
„ left „ . . . |
• i9i . |
|
Greatest expanse |
• 53 |
" These two represent the stoutest and longest horns, respectively, I have ever seen, and were both shot by myself.
" Another very fine head which was killed in a gun trap and brought to me by a Kuki, and is now in the possession of Mr. F. Bott, measures —
Tip to tip round sweep . Girth of right horn at base
„ left „ Widest expanse about .
74 inches.
2oi „ S6 „
" This was measured dry, and would probably have measured close on 22 inches round the bases of the horns if measured fresh. I have known no head with such a magnificent expanse as this one showed, though one or two have approached it rather closely."
The Gayal
THE GAYAL, OR MITHAN
[Bos fro// talis)
Native Names. — Gayal, or perhaps preferably Gaia/, Hindustani ; Mitha/i, Bunerea-gorii, and Gavi or Gabi, Assamese and in Chitta- gong; Sandung, Manipuri ; She I ok Shio of the Kukis ; Jhongmta of the Mughis ; Bui-sang and Riil of the Naga Tribes ; PIni of THE Akas ; Siha of the Daphla Hill Tribes ; Niini and Tsaiiig, Burmese
(Plate U. Figs 2, 2a)
If it really exist in the wild condition at all — a question in regard to which a certain amount of scepticism is permissible — the gayal is one of the comparatively few animals coming under the designation of big game that have seldom or never been " bagged " by the British sports- man. The only definite record that we have of such a " bag " is the case of an apparently wild gayal shot in Tenasserim by the late Mr. W. Davison, who formerly collected for Mr. A. O. Hume, in whose possession is the skull of this particular animal. But there may be a question whether this gayal was really truly wild, or merely one that had escaped from domestication and taken to a life in the woods. The circumstances that apparently tell most strongly against the former view is that since the specimen in question no other wild gayal has been recorded from Tenasserim, while in every other part of their habitat these cattle are known only in the domesticated condition ; but, on the other hand, it must be remembered that the fauna of the interior of Tenasserim is but very little known, and the gayal may be wild there although domesticated elsewhere.
If the gayal be a truly wild animal — whether or no it exists in that
5 2 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
condition at the present day — there can be, of course, no question as to its right to be regarded as a distinct species, or race. But if, on the other hand, it is nothing more than a domesticated breed, then it is highly probable that it is merely an artificial derivative from the gaur. And, as already mentioned, certain skulls of the latter are known which exhibit in some degree an approximation towards the gayal type of cranium, but these may be half-breeds.
Although a magnificently-built creature, the bull gayal never attains the same dimensions as the gaur, from which it differs by the shorter limbs, the somewhat less elevation of the dorsal ridge, the great develop- ment of the dewlap, and the form of the skull and horns. In place of the arched intercornual ridge and concave frontal profile of the typical gaur, we have in the typical gayal a perfectly straight line on the vertex of the skull between the widely-separated horns, while the entire forehead is flat and of great relative width and shortness. The horns, too, which are mostly of a blackish hue, more or less mingled with yellow, show only a slight curvature, inclining outwards and somewhat upwards, without trace of a terminal inward sweep. In the skull the marked shortness of the nasal bones forms a notable point of distinction from the gaur. As regards colour, the gayal is a distinctly darker animal than its relative, the whole of the upper-parts, with the exception of the forehead, which is frequently tawny, being in both sexes blackish brown ; the legs, from above the knees and hocks downwards, showing the usual white or yellowish " stockings." In the domesticated condition parti-coloured, or even wholly white, gayal are stated to be by no means uncommon.
Since the foregoing remarks were penned an important communica- tion on the gaur and gayal, by Mr. E. C. Stuart-Baker, of Kachar, has appeared in the columns of The Asian newspaper of the 20th and 27th of February 1900. This communication is illustrated with numerous figures of skulls of both animals : and since its author has had unrivalled
The Gayal 5 3
opportunities for studying them, his conclusions are worthy the best attention of naturahsts and sportsmen.
Mr. Stuart-Baker commences his article by stating that he has studied the two animals for upwards of thirteen years. " During the lirst two or three years of this period," he writes, " I held the opinion that they were identical. After this I veered round a good deal, and began to think that the reasons for considering them distinct mio:ht be rio-ht : this because I
Fig. 5. — Skull and Horns of a Bull Gayal from Tenasserim. In the Collection of Mr. A. O. Hume.
quite failed to obtain certain necessary links between the two forms. The last two or three years, however, have produced specimens which have shown every one of these same links, and I am now forced to the con- clusion that there is no ditFerence of specific value between the two animals, such differences as do exist being principally, if not entirely, the result of domestication."
This latter sentence, it may be remarked, is not quite what a scientific naturalist would have written. What is really meant would seem to be that the characters in which the typical gayal differs from the typical gaur
54 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
are the results of domestication. Although several of the figures of gaur skulls given are those of immature animals in which the characteristic adult features are not attained, yet there does seem considerable evidence of a transition between the typical cranial forms of the two animals — a transition of which the present writer has already had partial cognisance.
Such a transition does not, however, by any means invalidate the features given above as characteristic of the two animals — such features being those of their typical representatives. And it may be added that, so far as the present writer's knowledge goes, it is only in the Kachar and Assam districts that skulls intermediate between the typical gaur and the typical gayal are met with ; the Madras gaur preserving, when fully adult, the distinctive peculiarities of that animal in all cases.
Summing up the evidence, it seems that the gayal is not definitely known to exist in a truly wild condition in Northern India, where there is a more or less complete transition in respect of cranial character from the typical gaur to the typical gayal, and that these intermediate speci- mens may be due to crossing. This, how^ever, by no means necessarily leads to the conclusion that wild gayal never existed anywhere. And it is quite possible that Tenasserim may have been their original home, whence they were transported north in a domesticated condition. The difference between typical gaur and typical gayal skulls is so great that it is difficult to believe it can be the result of domestication.
Horns of pure-bred gayal measuring 15, 14^, 14, and 1 2f inches in length are on record ; the respective basal circumference of these being III, 13!, 14, and 13I inches, and the tip-to-tip interval of the first, second, and fourth of these specimens being 26f, 28, and 27! inches.^ Some larger measurements are noted below, but it is uncertain whether these are from typical animals.
1 In Wild Oxen, etc. of all Lands, p. 33, the tip-to-tip interval (27!) is inadvertently given as the basal girth (i3|-) of one of these specimens.
The Gayal 55
Putting on one side the question whether gayal are ever found in a truly wild state, in a domesticated or semi-domesticated condition these splendid animals are met with among certain tribes both to the north and south of the Assam valley, in the neighbourhood of Manipur and Kachar, as well as in hill Tipperah, Chittagong, and the Lushai hills as far south as Chittagong itself Many, or all, of these domesticated gayal are allowed to run by themselves through the forest, returning to the villages of their owners at nightfall.
Horns of cow gayal (Plate II. Fig. 2a) are much more slender than those of the bulls.
The following dimensions of tame gayal (or of animals intermediate between typical gaur and typical gayal) are taken from Mr. Stuart-Baker's paper.
In one bull the measurements are : —
iches.
■ Round sweep from tip to tip Length of right horn
,, left horn
Girth of right horn at base
„ left Tip to tip of horn, straight .
14
31
" Another bull very similar in general shape to the last measured- Round sweep from tip to tip . . . 48 inches.
i7i „
Length of right horn
left „ Girth of right horn at base
left „ Tip to tip in a straight line
" A young bull, which would probably have become in two or three
years an abnormally fine specimen, taped —
Round sweep from tip to tip . . . 58 inches.
Length of right horn . . . . 22 ,,
left
56 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
Girth of right horn at base . . . I2|- inches.
left „ „ ... I2h „
Tip to tip in a straight line . . . 42 ,,
" A cow rather above the average measured as follows : —
Round sweep . . . • ■ 41 inches.
Right horn . . . • . 15 ,,
Left horn . . • ■ ■ 16 ,,
Girth at base . . . . • loj „
Tip to tip . . . • ■ 25I
" The horns first mentioned in these measurements are bigger round the base than any others I have seen and measured, but one which I saw in a Naga village on a sacrificial pile was much stouter as well as longer, and this, I should think, would have measured close on 19 inches round the bases. The Nagas, however, refused to sell it, and I had no tape then to measure it with. I have seen none, so far as I remember, which were purely of the domestic type, with horns as long as those ot the third specimen."
THE BURMESE BANTING
{Bos sondakiis birmaniciis)
Native Names. — Tsaiiig or Hsaiiig, Burmese ; Banting and Sapi-iitan, Malay
(Plate II. Fig. 3)
The tsaing, or banting (for the name sapi-utan, meaning torest-ox, is applied by the Malays alike to this species and the little anoa of Celebes), is the characteristic wild ox of the Malay countries ; and although belonging to the same group as the gaur and the gayal, it displays some of the dis- tinctive characters of the group in a less marked degree, and thus departs less
The BantinQT
S7
widely from the common ox. It has, for example, the ridge on the withers much less developed, and not terminating posteriorly in a distinct step ; while the cows, and in the Burmese race the bulls also, are reddish coloured. Perhaps the two most distinctive features of the species are the horny callous shield on the vertex of the head between the bases of the horns, and the large white patch on the buttocks, which surrounds, although it does not include, the root ot the tail. Standing from about 5 feet to at
|
Xs^ |
|
Fig. 6. — Freshly killed Head of Bull Burmese Banting, or Tsaing. From a specimen shot by Mr. R. McD. Hawker.
least 5 feet 9 inches in height at the withers, the banting is a rather lighter- built animal than the gaur, with a less massive and more elongate form of head. The dewlap is but imperfectly developed, the well-tufted tail descends somewhat below the level of the hocks, and the ears are propor- tionately smaller than in either the gaur or the gayal. Compared with those of the former animal, the horns of the bull banting are comparatively slender and more nearly cylindrical ; the only compression being found at the base of those of fully adult individuals. They are more or less rugged near their origin from the head, but are smooth for the remainder of their
58 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
length. At first the direction of their sweep is outwards and somewhat upwards, but towards the tips they take an inward and sHghtly backward curvature. In the dried skull their bases are seen to flange out in a charac- teristic manner. In the cows and young bulls the general colour of the short and sleek hair of the upper-parts is reddish brown, approaching chestnut : the under-parts being much lighter coloured, sometimes even whitish or white, as are the inner surfaces of the ears, the lips, the inner side of the legs, and the rump-patch. The legs, too, in adult cows are white from above the knees and hocks downwards to the hoofs, although in calves their outer sides are chestnut, like the body ; a dark streak also running down the middle of the back. Except in the case when the rump-patch is wanting, the general distribution of colour is the same in adult bulls as in full-grown cows, but the tint of the upper-parts may be of almost any shade between dark reddish brown and blackish brown.
The typical representative of the banting is an inhabitant of Java, but an identical or nearly allied form is met with in Bali, Borneo, probably Sumatra, and perhaps the Malay Peninsula ; the adult bulls of this typical race having the dark area of the upper-parts blackish brown or even black, and the forehead and face coloured like the back.
Not so the Burmese banting, in which the general colour of the upper-parts in the adult bull is described (for the British Museum has no complete wild specimen of this race) as dark chestnut, appearing darker in some lights than in others, and shading off into light brown below. The face, as exemplified by a mounted head in the British Museum, is tawny grey, with a light chestnut patch some distance above the muzzle ; the margin of the lips and the inner surface of the ears being whitish, and the muzzle blackish. The head of a bull shot by Mr. Bruce in Upper Burma is very similar in colour to the Museum specimen, but more uniformly tawny. With the exception that the upper part of the fore- legs is darkish grey, the rest of the coloration is similar to that of the typical
The Banting 59
race. Young bulls, in which the white markings are less distinct, are lighter and brighter in colour. At all ages the cows are of a bright reddish chestnut, with the face somewhat paler than the back, especially on the forehead, round the eyes, and near the muzzle, where, like the under-parts and the lower portion of the legs, it becomes dirty white. The specimens of which the height has been recorded do not run so large as the typical Malay race, a bull standing 5 feet 4^, inches, and a cow 5 feet I inch at the withers. In the notes quoted below it will be seen that there are considerable variations from the above type of coloration, but in no instances are the bulls described as being black.
The Burmese variety of the banting is found in Burma, Pegu, and Arakan, whence it may perhaps extend southwards to the Malay Peninsula, and northwards to the hill-ranges east of Chittagong. Banting also occur in Manipur, but these, as mentioned below, may belong to another race of the animal. For accounts of the Burmese banting we are chiefly indebted to Captain Evans, and Mr. C. W. A. Bruce, who wrote in The Asian newspaper of loth October 1899 under the initials C. W. A. B.
The latter writer observes that the Burmese distinguish three varieties of tsaing, viz. —
" [a) The common light red bulls and chestnut cows called by them Hsaing Bya.
" [h) Dark chocolate bulls and cows darker chestnut than in variety {ci) ; Hsaing Nyo of the Burmans ; sometimes this variety is spoken of as Hsaing Mwe.
" (r) Dark-faced bulls with red bodies, Hsaing Ni of the Burmans. I have shot bulls of all three varieties, and the differences are well marked, especially so in the case of the hsaing nyo, which, except in shape and in the position of the white markings, might be another species altogether.
" All three varieties inhabit the same kind of jungle and may be found in the same forest, but I have never seen herds containing two ot the above
6o Great and Small Game of India, etc.
varieties in the same herd. All herds I have seen have consisted of individuals of one variety only."
Since all these so-called varieties occur in the same area they cannot be regarded as local races, although the alleged differences in the colour of the different herds is certainly very remarkable.
In all parts of its habitat the banting frequents less hilly ground than the gaur, and is more often found in grass-jungles, or grass-jungles with scattered trees, than in thick forest.
The following notes on the habits of the Burmese banting are abbreviated from the excellent account given by Mr. Bruce. " During the hot weather," he writes, " these animals wander about the plains of Engdaing forest, consisting mainly of the In-tree {Dipterocarpus tuber culatus). This tree is gregarious and usually has an undergrowth of coarse grass, ' Thekai ' {Imperata cyl'mdricd), ox ' Kaing ' [Saccharu/n sp). All engdaing forests are broken up by open expanses devoid of tree-growth, but covered with thekai grass. Such places are known to the Burmese as ' Kwins ' ; depressions between plateaux in the engdaing devoid of tree-growth also occur. These are usually covered with kaing grass. In April the grass, as a rule, gets burnt off^ by forest fires, and it is to eat the tender young shoots of the new growth of the two varieties of grasses that the hsaing frequent the plains, though they are also found in these places at other times of the year, particularly in the cold weather. They also eat leaves, shoots of bamboos, and fruits of trees, but they prefer grass. In the hot weather this engdaing forest is a sure find for hsaing. They occasionally go into the foot-hills, if there are any adjoining, to sleep during the day, descending again about 4.30 p.m., and returning at about 9 a.m. But I have found hsaing feeding in the middle of the day in the very height of the hot weather, and also found them sleeping in the engdaing, under the very sparse shade of a big in-tree. I have never found hsaing go high up into hills, and doubt if they ever go much above 2000 feet above sea-level.
The Banting 6i
In the rains, when the new bamboo-shoots are sprouting, they leave the engdaing entirely, and frequent bamboo -forest to feed, like many other animals in Burma, on these shoots. They, I think, feed mostly at night, but also at intervals throughout the day, and don't seem to mind heat at all. They undoubtedly drink, and are very fond of frequenting salt-licks, and also licks of a peculiar light grey earth [inyehnan), the ' smelling- earth ' of the Burmans. This earth is found usually in the banks of dry nalas in the engdaing, and the hsaing scrape deep holes in it with their tongues. Bulls, especially solitary ones, are very fond of butting down young trees along the path they may be travelling, and the strength exerted to break some of these must be considerable. I have never heard a hsaing calling like gaur do, and the Burmans say they do not make any sound, except the snort of alarm or warning. This is very similar to that made by the gaur, but, instead of being double, is only a single snort ; on alarming a herd one often hears more than one snort, but after careful observation, I am inclined to think these are made by different individuals. The snort is more prolonged than the gaur's. I once came across a young hsaing asleep in a patch of unburnt grass in engdaing jungle ; it bolted off" in the direction which the numerous footsteps indicated that a herd had travelled. This was in May, and I fancy the animal was very young, and had been hidden by the mother while the herd went on grazing. All, or rather nearly all, herds I have found in April and May have young calves with them, so I presume that the young are born at the end ot the cold and beginning of the hot weather. The sense of smell in hsaing is very keen ; I should place hearing as second, and sight a bad third, as I have often suddenly seen hsaing, and noticed them looking at me, but on my standing perfectly still they have either gone on grazing or moved slowly away ; this was always when the wind was favourable. Solitary bulls are more wary than herds, and on being disturbed usually dash straight oft and travel considerable distances. Herds, however, snort on being alarmed.
62 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
dash off for loo yards or so, and then stop for a few seconds to look round. I have often bagged a bull by directly hearing the snort. Running hard in the direction taken by the herd, the bull generally brings up the rear and acts as whipper-in of the flying animals. If a herd is followed, my experience is that one can always come up with them within two hours at the most. I have fired twice within twenty minutes at the same herd, and once I came up with the same herd four times in the same day, though I did not bag the bull. I do not think them particularly dangerous ; I have never been charged by one, and Burmans show less fear of hsaing, wounded or unwounded, than they do of his cousin the gaur. But they tell blood-curdling yarns of charging hsaing in ' Burma min letet,' i.e. the king's time ; but then, as they used muzzle- loaders that necessitated crawling up to within a few yards of the animal, no wonder they got frequently knocked over. I have only twice seen a hsaing bull prepare to charge, and each time, as the ground was open, I was able to stop such intentions. The last time, as I had an 8-bore, I waited till the last minute to see what he really meant, and I certainly think he had made up his mind to try close quarters. Anyway my men thought so, as they all hastily clambered up trees ; and as the hsaing, a iine herd-bull, suddenly turned round (he was running away), faced us, held his head well up, started shaking it and stamping the ground with one foot, I didn't wait any longer.
" The Burmans say that if one lies down flat, one is safe from a charging gaur, as he can't dig you with his horns and won't tread on you, but you are not safe in the same position from a hsaing. The horns of a hsaing bull come out at right angles to his face, whereas those of a gaur are in the same line as his face, more or less.
" Hsaing, as regards the number in a herd, vary considerably. I have met two females and one calf all alone, as well as solitary bulls, but the usual thing is to find a herd of, say, seven to twelve cows, a few calves.
The Banting 63
with one bull. The smallest herd I have seen consisted of a bull, two cows and one calf; while the biggest herd seen consisted of about twenty cows, numerous calves and one magnificent bull, but there may have been more. I, however, never got a shot, as the animals all saw me before I saw them ; they dashed off, and, as it was evening, there was no hope of coming up with them before dark. The track is more heart-shaped and pointed than that of the gaur, and also differs in size."
As already mentioned, banting occur in the Manipur district, especially in the Kubbu valley between Manipur and Northern Burma ; and there is a considerable degree of probability that these banting are sub-specifically distinct from the Burmese animal. But, unfortunately, there are no specimens at present in our Museums ; and it is not a commendable practice to give names to animals of which examples are not available for future reference and comparison.
For what we know of the Manipur banting, we are indebted to the observations of Surgeon -Captain H. S. Wood, who says that the bulls stand about 5 feet at the shoulder, and are red at all ages, while they show no white patch on the buttocks, although this conspicuous mark is fully developed in the cows. The bulls have comparatively small ears ; and their general colour is dark red, passing into greyish white on the face, the under surface of the body, and the inside of the legs. They have no dark streak running down the back ; the front ot the fore-legs above the knee is reddish black ; the tip and front margin of the ears is deep velvety black ; the eye is encircled with a greyish-white ring, while the front and sides of the upper part of the head are tawny white, the naked muzzle being greyish black. In the cows the ears are larger, and the general colour of the upper- parts light red, with a dark streak running down the middle of the back, but no black on the ears or the front of the fore-legs. The under surface of the body, the legs from the knees and hocks to the hoofs, and the rump -patch are
64 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
pure white. A cow measured by Captain Wood stood 4 feet 10 inches at the withers.
If the alleged absence of the white rump-patch be a constant feature in the bulls, and the presence of a dark dorsal streak an equally- distinctive feature of the cows, there would seem little doubt as to the racial distinctness of the Manipur representative of the banting. Skins of both sexes of the Burmese and the Manipuri banting are, however, urgently needed ; and until these are available the distinctive features and the range of colour-variation in either cannot possibly be properly determined.
THE YAK
(^Bos gi-i/nfiiens)
Native Names. — Dofig, Brong-dong (wild race), Pegu (domesticated breed),
Tibetan; Yai^ Ladaki and in North Kumaon ; Ban - c hoar,
Hindustani; Kuch-gai/, Punjabi; Baku (old bull) and Kotass,
Kirghiz
(Plate II. Figs. 4, ^a)
By the older naturalists the yak, or wild ox of Tibet, was almost invariably spoken of as the grunting ox ; and so far as the domesticated breeds (from which the original description was taken) are concerned, the attribute in question is very distinctive of the animal. Accord- ing, however, to the accounts of modern naturalists and travellers, the " grunting " practice is strictly confined to the domesticated breeds, the wild yak uttering no such sound. It has, therefore, been proposed to regard the latter as a distinct species, under the name of mut//s ; but this seems a quite unnecessary refinement in nomenclature, and the most that would be justifiable in this direction would be to designate the
The Yak
65
wild race as Bos gri/iiiiieiis mutiis. It is true that such a combination of names would involve a contradiction ; but such little inconsistencies are not regarded as matters ot any importance by modern naturalists.
By sportsmen the Tibetan wild ox is almost invariably spoken of by one or other of its native names ; and so far, so good. But if they were determined, as they are, to use the name bison for any of the wild
Fig. 7 — Parti-coloured and WIhil D micstR Utd \ ik 111 the Ptrk u Uomim Ibbt^ From a photogriph b'\ tht DiRliLbb of Bedford
cattle of India and the neighbouring countries, it should have been to the yak instead of to the gaur that this term should have been applied. For, as a matter of fact, the yak appears to be very closely allied indeed to the bisons, of which group it is best regarded as an aberrant member specially modified by its long isolation and the high elevation at which it lives.
How great is the elevation above the sea-level at which this animal ordinarily dwells in the wild state is probably but very imperfectly
66 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
realised by the great majority of persons ; and it may perhaps assist the imagination to state that if the Tibetan plateau were at the summit of a cliff rising sheer up from the sea-shore, a yak looking over the edge of the cliif would be about four miles above the level of the sea !
Apart from certain features in the skull and the setting-on of the horns, to say nothing of the form of the latter, the yak approximates to the bisons in the long hair with which portions of its body are clothed, and also in possessing fourteen pairs of ribs, instead of the thirteen found in the gaur and its allies ; the bisons having fifteen pairs. The long hair is, however, still more elongated than in the bisons, and also differently disposed on the body ; while the enormous mass of bushy hair clothing the lower half of the tail at once serves to differentiate the yak from all its kindred.
In general build the wild bull yak is a massive, not to say a clumsy- looking animal ; attaining to a height of at least 5^ feet at the withers, and, according to the reports of some sportsmen, falling but little, if at all, below 6 feet in exceptionally fine examples. The head is generally carried low, thus tending to accentuate the elevation of the withers, which form a more or less conspicuous hump, behind which the back is fairly level, without any decided falling away at the rump. The muzzle and ears are comparatively small, there is no dewlap, and the short and stout limbs terminate in large and massive hoofs. Very characteristic of the bull yak are its long, massive, and gracefully-curved black horns, which form some of the finest trophies of which the Indian sportsman can boast. Although very slightly compressed at the base in aged bulls, yak horns are nearly cylindrical in section and smooth throughout their length ; their curvature is at first upwards and outwards, then forwards, and finally inwards and upwards, with a slightly backward inclination in some examples. Cow horns (Plate II. Fig. /\.a) are much more slender than those of the bulls. The longest yak horns on record
The Yak
67
are a pair in the Museum at Lucknow, which are stated to measure 39 inches along the curve ; their other dimensions being unknown. Next to these are a pair measuring 38I inches in length, 17 in girth, and 19 between the tips. The lengths of other line examples are respectively 35h 34. 32I, 32, 31I' 31. and 30! inches.
To return to the general description of the animal, the hair on the
Fig. 8. — Skull and Horns of Bull Yak. From a specimen in the British IVIuscam.
head, back, and upper portion of the sides is comparatively short and smooth, but on the lower part of the flanks is elongated to form a pendent fringe extending across the shoulders and thighs ; there is likewise a tuft of elongated hair on the front of the chest, and the lower half of the tail is enveloped in a huge bunch of still longer hair, reaching somewhat below the hocks. In wild yak the coat is uniformly blackish brown throughout, although showing a little white in the region of the muzzle,
68 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
with a sprinkling of grey on the head and face in old animals, and tending to rusty on the back in aged bulls. The semi-domesticated yak of the elevated plateau of Rupshu, which, as the present writer can testify from personal experience, are " kittle cattle " to deal with, are very large, and generally, if not always, as dark-coloured as their wild kindred. But in most parts of Ladak and the Tibetan districts of the Himalaya the domesti- cated breed is much smaller, and may be of any colour from black to white. In such breeds, too, which may have a strain of the Indian humped cattle in their blood, the cows (as shown in the photograph of the herd at Woburn Abbey) may be devoid of horns. It is from the tails of such parti-coloured or white yak that the white fly-whisks, or chaories, so much in vogue in the plains of India, are made. Pure-bred domesticated yak have two great disabilities — they will neither eat corn nor cross a bridge. Wild yak are restricted to the plateau of Tibet, ranging from the eastern part of Ladak as far as Kansu, in North-West China, and extending northwards as far as the chain of the Kuen-Lun. In summer they are found at elevations between about 14,000 and 20,000 teet, and even in winter it is probable that, in Ladak at least, they seldom, if ever, descend much below i 3,000 feet. So far as the writer is aware, wild yak have never been brought into Leh (11,500 feet), and it is most probable that they could not exist at levels much below this. The parti-coloured domesticated breeds, as well as the small black yak frequently brought into Darjiling, will, however, thrive, under suitable conditions, at the sea-level.
In Ladak the great district for yak is the Chang-chenmo valley, and the dreary regions between this and the Upper Indus ; but these animals are yearly becoming scarcer within the territories under the rule of the Maharaja of Kashmir, although reported to be numerous in Tibet proper. One of the earliest British sportsmen in the Chang-chenmo district was General A. A. Kinloch, who has given an excellent account of the habits of wild yak. The second largest head in Mr. Rowland Ward's list
The Yak 69
belonged to an animal shot in the Kuen-Lun range by the late Mr. A. Dalgleish, who during the seventies was in the employ of the Central Asian Trading Company. More recently yak have been shot by Mr. St. George Littledale in Tibet, and by Messrs. H. Z. Darrah and P. H. G. Powell- Cotton ; the mounted specimen now exhibited in the British Museum being one of several that fell to the rifle of the gentleman last named. An interesting account of yak-shooting, by Mr. Edgar Phelps, will be found in vol. xiii. of the 'Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (1900).
Yak feed chiefly upon the tufts of wiry grass dotted over the arid soil of the Tibetan plateau, and grow fat upon such apparently insufficient fodder. In search of food, or merely from a roving disposition, they are in the habit of traversing long distances, and feed mostly during the early morning and evening, reposing in the daytime on some bleak hill- side, where they can receive timely warning of the approach of danger. As in the case of other cattle, the old bulls are either solitary or associate in small parties of three or four ; while the herds, which in undisturbed districts may include from about half-a-score to a hundred head, are formed by the cows, young bulls, and calves. In lieu of water, which is essential to their existence, yak will eat snow during the winter, or at very high altitudes at all seasons. Smell seems to be their most acute sense, hearing and sight being apparently less keenly developed.
For yak-shooting Mr. Darrah used the Lee-Metford rifle. He gives the following account of a stalk : — " Lying flat down, and pushing the Lee-Metford in front of me, I got behind a stone on the summit, and saw a large number of yaks in front of me, most of them some 250 to 350 yards off. It was easy enough to make out the principal bull of the herd, he was so much larger than the rest, but I could not distinguish any others of a decent size, though I saw two or three small ones. I lay where I was for some ten minutes, trying to make out which to fire at after the
70 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
first shot at the big bull, but could not come to any satisfactory conclusion. The animals were entirely unconscious of danger ; some were lying down chewing the cud, and some feeding quietly about. The big bull was sometimes grazing, sometimes looking about him, but all the time moving more or less to the west, that is, to my right and up the nala. I did not like risking a shot at the distance he was off, and examined the ground to my right to see if there was any chance of getting nearer."
|
-- |
— W^"^'" |
__ ^ |
|
|
1 |
_4jfcsi- |
1 |
|
|
^ |
j^ |
||
|
w^ |
^ ii It w
Duchess
Ml idtord.
)graph by the
An opportunity for gaining a more favourable situation presenting itself, the big bull was crippled at the first shot, and soon afterwards dispatched. From the fact of his being with the herd it would seem that this stalk, which took place in August, was during the pairing-season. Mr. Darrah gives the length of the horns of this bull as just over 29 inches, with a girth of 1 3 inches ; but in Mr. Ward's list the length is entered as 30 inches.
Great & Small Game of India &c., Plati
Fiibayhai bj?.t7Kland Vfardl
PLATE II
Irt. Gaur. 3- Burmese Banting, or Tsaing.
za. Gayal. 4. 4"- ^ak.
5, 5^. Indian Buffalo.
The Indian Buffalo 71
THE ARNA, OR INDIAN BUFFALO
[Bos biibalis)
Native Names. — Arna (bull), Ami (cow), or, more commonly, Arna bhahua and JungH bhains (bhains being the name of the domesticated buffalo), Hindustani ; Ma?ig in Bhagalpur ; Mains^ Bengali ; Bir- biar of the Ho-kols ; Gera eriimi of the Gonds ; Mi Harak, Cingalese ; Mo/?, Assamese ; Siloi of the Kukis ; Giibiii, Ri/i, Ziz, and Le OF the Nagas ; Misip, Kachari ; Iroi, Manipuri ; Kywai, Burmese ; Pa/m of the Karens ; Karbo or Karabii^ Malay
(Plate II. Figs. 5, 5^/)
Those who have seen the domesticated buffi;ilo of Italy, Egypt, and India are acquainted with a degenerate descendant of the magnificent Indian wild buffalo, whose spread of horn exceeds that of any existing member of the Bovida. The wild animal itself is, however, known to few besides sportsmen ; since only two examples of the Indian buffalo have been exhibited in the London Zoological Gardens, one of which was lent in 1870, while the second (a cow) was presented by the Maharaja of Bhaonagar in 1893. Whether the former was a truly wild animal, the writer has no means of knowing. A iine bull, tit tor mounting, is one of the desiderata of the British Museum. Fortunately, however, the national collection contains the tinest pair of horns on record ; the length along the outer curve of one horn being 'j']'-^ and the basal girth 17I inches. All buffaloes differ from the other members of the genus Bos by the distinctly triangular section of their horns, as well as by the rounded form of the hinder part of the skull, and likewise by the sparsely haired skin, which may indeed be well-nigh naked in very aged individuals. By
72 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
the present writer such points of distinction are regarded as of subgeneric value only, so that the full name of the Indian species would be Bos {Bubaliis) hiibalis ; but to some it appears preferable to regard Biibalus (as also Bisoii) in the light of a genus by itself.
From its very distant cousin the African buffalo, the Indian, or, as it might perhaps be better termed, the Asiatic buffalo is at once dis- tinguished by the form of the horns and the wide space by which these are separated at their bases from one another on the forehead in both sexes, as well as by the much greater length of the head, and the narrower and less densely haired ears. The profile of the head is nearly straight, and the convexity of the forehead moderate. The horns, of which male and female specimens are shown in the plate, are entirely black in colour, and curve almost in the same plane ; those of bulls being much more massive than those of cows. As regards curvature, two distinct and well-marked types are recognisable. In the one, the horns curve regularly upwards from each side of the head in a semicircular manner, so as to be separated by a comparatively small interval at the tips (Plate II. Fig. 5). In the other type (of which the pair represented in Fig. 5*^? of the plate are a medium, not an extreme example), they spread almost directly outwards for the greater portion of their length, after which they curve somewhat upwards and inwards, the interval between their tips being consequently much greater than in the first type. It is commonly asserted that horns of the first type are those of bulls, while those of the second type pertain to cows. This is, however, disproved by a photograph of a series of horns of both sexes shot by H.H. the Maharaja of Kuch Behar, and herewith re- produced. In this series all the horns are of the first, or circular type ; those of the cows being readily distinguishable from those of bulls by their inferior girth. Again, the enormous pair of detached horns in the British Museum, one of which measures ^"j^ inches in length, although of the straight type, are so massive as to be almost certainly referable to a male.
The Indian Buffalo 73
And the same is the case with a slightly smaller pair of the same type, from Assam, also preserved in the Museum. The long slender straight horns frequently obtained from Assam are evidently the female of this type. From the evidence ot the Maharaja's specimens, it would appear that in Kuch Behar all the buffaloes have horns of the circular type. And since horns of the straight type are known to occur in some parts of Assam, it would seem highly probable that there may be two local races of the species, distinguished by the form of the horns.
In Mr. Rowland Ward's list the longest horns of which the sex is definitely known are those of a cow, measuring 70^ inches ; 63 inches being the longest record for a bull. Among the specimens in the same list of over 54 inches, the minimum tip-to-tip is 22, and the maximum loi inches ; the specimen with the former measurement belonging to a bull, while the second, which is in the possession of Mr. Walter Rothschild, probably pertains to a cow.
As already mentioned, the ears of the Indian buffalo are relatively small and of a somewhat tubular form, with only a small amount of long hairs on their margins, although with a variable quantity in the interior. The tail, which terminates in a small tuft, reaches down about to the level of the hocks. Although aged animals are well-nigh nude, younger individuals have a certain amount of coarse, bristly hair all over the head and body ; and it is noteworthy that, unlike the African buffalo, this hair is directed forwards from the haunches to the back of the head ; a whorl on the hind- quarters marking the point at which the hair of this region commences to be directed backwards. In the typical race (now alone under consideration) the colour ot the skin and hair is ashy or blackish grey, although there may be a more or less pronounced tendency to the development of dirty white on the lower part of the legs ; this being especially noticeable in the domesticated breed. In height it is probable that the very largest adult bulls do not fall much, if at all, short of 6^ feet at the withers ;
74 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
although at present the maximum measurement on record appears to be 6 feet zh inches (18-^ hands).
The dense grass-jungles covering the alluvial flats of the Ganges and Bramaputra, from Eastern Assam to Tirhut, form some of the most favoured haunts of the wild Indian buffalo. But the animal is also to be met with in many other parts of the peninsula, as, for instance, on the maritime plains of Orissa and Midnapur, as well as on the grass-lands of the eastern portions of the Central Provinces, especially in Mandla, Raipur, Sambulpur, and Bastar, whence it extends at least as far south as the Godaveri and Pranhita valleys. Wild buffaloes are also to be found in the northern districts of Ceylon ; as they likewise are in Burma and the Malay countries. Whether, however, these Burmese and Malay buffaloes are aboriginally wild is a matter by no means easy to determine.
The arna (to use a term properly restricted to the male as applicable to both sexes) is very similar in its mode of life to the Indian rhinoceros, being essentially a grazing animal, inhabiting by preference tall grass-jungles, or reed-brakes, in which it is completely concealed, avoiding hills and rocks, and always seeking the neighbour- hood of marshy swamps, in the warm mud of which it delights to wallow. Buffaloes are indeed the most water-loving of all cattle, frequently immersing the whole body, and leaving only the head exposed, instead of standing midleg-deep after the fashion of European cattle. Never (save for its magnificent horns) a handsome creature, the Indian buffalo looks positively hideous when a thick coat of brown mud has dried on its hide after a bath in a j/ii7, or swamp. Associating in large herds, buffalo feed during the early morning and again at evening, while they pass the greater portion of the day in repose, either quietly chewing the cud or sleeping. When disturbed during his mid-day siesta, an old bull is much more likely to prove an awkward customer than
^6 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
is one stalked during its feeding hours. In place of their usual haunts, buffalo may occasionally be encountered amid low scrub-jungle, but are seldom if ever seen in tree-forest. The pairing-season is in the autumn, and the calves (of which there are not unfrequently two at a birth) are born in the summer, the period of gestation being ten months.
Buffalo may be hunted either by beating with a line of elephants, by tracking on a single elephant, or by walking them up on toot ; the hot season, in April and June, being the best for the latter description of sport, as the long grass is then dried and broken, or burnt down ; while, as water is scarce, the animals are obliged to resort to such pools as remain, where their fresh tracks should be carefully looked for by the sportsman. A foot- print measures about 7 inches in length. Buffalo have been known to charge even before being wounded ; and when they do charge, wounded or unwounded, they generally press the attack home. The way in which a buffalo charges an elephant is well described in Ball's Jungle Life in India. " Having fired or dropped all my ' express ' cartridges," writes the narrator, " I fell back upon my old muzzle-loading 12-bore rifle, and then advanced ; whereupon the calf ran out, being soon followed by the cow, in full charge at the elephant. Anarkalli (the elephant), not liking the aspect of things, trumpeted and turned tail, and put on a pace which fairly astonished me. All this time I had no little difficulty in keeping myself and four guns on the pad. However, as the buffalo came on I fired the heavy rifle at her with one hand, while I held on with the other. The bullet hit on the horn just as she was making a vigorous butt at Anarkalli's stern quarters. She then returned to her lair, and quite disappeared from sight by lying down. With some difficulty the mahout got the elephant back again ; but as she was very nervous, I got off the pad into the branches of a tree. Presently the cow stood up, and I then gave her a shot behind the ear which immediately dropped her dead. In all she had received seven bullets, one of the ' express ' balls having, strange to say, broken one of her
Assam Buffalo — Marco Polo's Sheep 77
hind-legs high up near its insertion with the pelvis. In spite of this she had run a long distance, and made the gallant charge I have described."
THE UPPER ASSAM BUFFALO
[Bos bubalis fiihms)
The head of a wild buffalo from Upper Assam which was mounted in the Indian Museum during the present writer's residence in Calcutta differs from the ordinary form by the uniformly dun-coloured hair;^ the skull being also distinguished by the relative shortness ot the face. On account of these differences the wild buffalo of Upper Assam seems well entitled to rank as a distinct race of the species ; but additional specimens would be most acceptable to naturalists.
MARCO POLO'S SHEEP
[Ovis poll)
Native Names. — Ki/chkar (male), Mesh (female), Wakhan ; Kidja or Gii/ja (male), Arka?- (female), Turki of Eastern or Chinese Turkestan
(Plate III. Figs, i, la)
Although exceeded in massiveness by those of the argali, the horns of Marco Polo's sheep are longer than those of any other species of the genus Ovis, and thus perhaps form the most magnificent trophies yielded by the wild sheep. Since every sportsman knows the distinctive features of sheep, it will on this occasion be unnecessary to consider them in any detail. Apart from their horns, sheep differ markedly from the oxen in the form
1 In Ml/,/ Oxen, etc. of a// Lfljids, p. 126, the word "dun" is unfortunately misprinted "dull,"
78 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
and structure of the muzzle, which is narrow and pointed, with the skin covered with fine velvety hairs, save for a small naked area immediately above the nostrils, and a narrow groove or cleft extending downwards from the same to divide the upper lip. In place of the two pairs found in the ox tribe, the ewes possess but a single pair of teats ; and glands are developed on the face below the eyes in most, as well as others between the hoofs in all, species ; both such glands being wanting in the oxen. In all the Asiatic members of the group the tail is quite short ; and in none of the species is there a dewlap or a beard on the chin ; while in none do the males exhale a strong, unpleasant odour. All the species inhabiting India and Central Asia have horns in both sexes ; but whereas those of the rams are large and spreading, in the ewes these appendages are small, slender, and more upright. The horns of the rams, at first starting, are directed obliquely outwards from the sides of the head, and then usually form a circular or spiral curve, with the upper border at first convex, and the tips pointing outwards. In section the horns are generally more or less triangular, while the surface is usually marked by fine parallel transverse wrinkles, separated by grooves ; and at intervals there occur lines of division marking the annual growths. Except in the bharal, the colour of the horns in the Eastern Asiatic species is some shade of yellowish olive or brown. In all wild species the hair is short, dense, stiff, and upright, quite unlike the wool of the European domesticated breeds, and is frequently elongated into a ruff on the throat. An important point of distinction from the oxen is to be found in the characters of the upper cheek-teeth, which have tall and narrow (instead of broad) crowns.
Coming to the special character of Marco Polo's sheep, we find that this animal is probably slightly inferior in height to the argali (described next), and of perhaps somewhat slighter build, while the horns of the rams are thinner and frequently longer. In the fully adult ram these are long and slender, forming more than one complete circle ; typically the front
Marco Polo's Sheep
79
angles of the horn are prominently developed, and the wrinkles on the front surface are placed relatively far apart, while those on the lateral surfaces are often but very indistinctly shown. In the summer coat, which appears to be rather longer than in the argali, the general colour of the upper-parts of old rams is light speckled brown ; the greater portion or the whole of the face, as well as the throat, the chest, the under-parts, the buttocks, and the legs are white ; the white also extending on to the outer surface of
Fig. II. — Head ot Ram of Marco Polo's Sheep, with horns measuring 59 inches ak)ng the curve. In the possession of Mr. David T. Hanbury.
the thighs. A black streak runs from the nape of the neck to the withers. No distinct ruff of long hairs is developed on the throat in the summer coat ; but in winter, when the whole coat is considerably longer, such a ruff— ^pure white in colour — makes its appearance on the throat and chest. At this season, too, the fur on the back shows a more decided rufescent tinge, especially towards the boundary dividing the dark from the light areas. In the ewes during winter the neck is brown in front, and there may be a dark line extending from the head to the root of the tail, this
8o Great and Small Game of India, etc.
streak being absent in summer. The horns of ewes (Plate III. Fig. la) appear to be more upright, deeper, and more sharply keeled in front than in the argali ; but there may be a considerable amount of individual variation in this respect.
A mounted male specimen of Ov/s poll in the British Museum stands 3 feet 5 inches at the shoulder ; and the weight of an adult ram is estimated at 22 stone. The four finest specimens of the horns on record respectively measure 75, 73, 71, and 70 inches along the front outer angle ; their respective basal girths being 16, 15, 15^, and 17 inches, and the tip-to-tip intervals 54^, 48, 53!, and 52 inches.
This magnificent wild sheep has an extensive range in Central Asia, the details of which are given in the present writer's work entitled Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All Lands. It only enters the area treated of in the present volume in the plateau north of Hunza, a district on the southern flanks of the Karakorum or Mastag range, situated to the north-west of Gilgit. It is commonly found at elevations between 10,000 and 18,000 feet above the sea-level.
If the sportsman be not inconvenienced by living at such a height, he will find Ovis poll stalking much less fatiguing work than is the pursuit of markhor and ibex in the middle Himalaya ; the reason being that the great sheep dwells on the top of the Central Asian plateau, where the country has not been cut up by the action of rivers and glaciers into the deep gorges and precipitous cliffs characteristic of the middle ranges of the Himalaya. The ground may, in fact, be described as partaking more of the nature of a rolling plain than of precipitous mountains, and difficult places are but seldom encountered. Nevertheless, although the sheep themselves are not excessively wary, stalking is by no means an altogether easy matter, owing to the open nature of the country, so that it is seldom that the sportsman can get to closer quarters with his quarry than a distance of between two and three hundred
Marco Polo's Sheep 8i
yards. Moreover, it must not be supposed that Ovis poll invariably restricts itself to open, rolling country, any more than does its cousin, Ovis amnion hodgsoni ; both animals crossing rugged hills in their wander- ings from one feeding ground to another, or in retiring to places of safety. An example of the precipitous country to which O. poll will sometimes betake itself is aflforded by the photograph of a living specimen in Mr. R. P. Cobbold's Innermost Asia, where the animal is shown standing on the face of a cliff which would try the climbing powers of an ibex.
The general habits of this magnificent species appear to be similar to those of other wild sheep, the large flocks in which it collects being composed of ewes of all ages and young males, and the old rams going about by themselves in small parties of from two or three to eight or ten, and occasionally more. In summer the parties of old males keep to the highest accessible ground ; but in winter, when many perish from starvation, they seek lower levels. It is not, however, from shortness of food alone that their numbers are diminished, for in the winter of 1897-98 rinderpest raged among the flocks on the Pamirs to such an extent that in certain districts almost a clean sweep was made of them.
The enormous weight of their horns causes the old rams when galloping to keep their heads nearly erect, instead of stretched out ; and from the length of these appendages old rams cannot touch the ground with any part of the head except the muzzle.
When running at top speed at high elevations, they frequently show signs of shortness of wind by opening their mouths ; up hill they never go at a great pace, and are then always compelled to halt from time to time to get their breath. As a rule they try to avoid snow-fields, and always display great care in steering clear of drifts and snow-filled gullies. They graze during the early morning, after which they spend most of the day in repose, feeding again about three or four in the afternoon. This, however, is in summer, and in the brief winter
82 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
day their niid-ilav iKuirs of repose are probably shortened. On the way to and from tlie grazing-grounds the old rams frequently butt at one another after the manner of their domesticated relatives ; and on such occasions the sound of their horns clashing together is audible at a great distance. A low kind of grunt is uttered during these playful combats. When danger threatens, these sheep stare at the intruder and stamp with their fore-feet before taking to flight, in precisely the same manner as the domesticated breeds.
For Ov/s poll shooting Mr. R. P. Cobbold, who was very successful in this sport, tells us in Inneniiost Asia that, according to his own experience, tliere is no rifle equal to the -256 Mannlicher, whose supremacy over other small weapons has been so generally admitted.
Littlcdale's sheep [Ovis saircnsis)^ which is a darker and smaller animal, with a white rump-patch in winter but none in summer, and horns somewliat intermediate between those of po/i and ammon^ is found much north (the Saiar Mountains) of the area treated of in this volume.
THE TIBETAN ARGALI
{Ovis a 111 moil hoJgsoiii)
Native N.ames. — Nyan (male), Nyanmo (female), Ladaki ; Nyci//g, NyafiiJ, and Hyan, Tibetan
(Plate III. Figs. 2, 2a)
Altliough frequently regarded as representing a species by itself, the nyan of Ladak comes so close to the typical Ovis ammon of the Altai, that it may well be classed merely as a local race of the latter. The males of this fine species (that is to say, of the argali in its widest sense) appear to be the largest oi all wild sheep, and are
Great &c Sma^l Game of India &cc., Plate
m.
\
PuiUshed, by R^wUu^ Woj^d, Ltd .
PLATE III
irt. Marco Polo's Sheep. 3. Sha.
la. Tibetan Argali. ^, ^a. Urial,
5, 5^. Bharal.
The Tibetan Argali 83
characterised by the massiveness of their horns, in which the basal girth is very large, and both the front and lateral surfaces are very broad. Very generally both the inner and outer front angles of the horns are rounded off in the basal portion of their length, and the transverse wrinkles are numerous and closely approximated, with the intervening grooves deep, and strongly developed on both the front and the lateral surfaces. As regards their curvature, the horns form a spiral varying from somewhat less to considerably more than a complete circle. In the ewes (Plate III. Fig. za) the horns are much smaller and more erect, with a backwards and outwards curvature, and becoming thin and strap-like towards the extremities. In winter the hair is comparatively long, close, and coarse ; but in summer, and more especially in aged rams, it is exceedingly short and thin, almost recalling that ot a closely -clipped horse. There may be an abundant ruff of long white hair on the throat. On the upper-parts the general colour in the rams varies from wood-brown in winter to a kind of speckled whitey brown in summer, at least in aged individuals. There is a more or less distinct white disk on the buttocks (most developed in winter) ; the face and front of the legs vary from whitey brown to brown, according to season and race ; ^ the inner side of the limbs and most of the under-parts are whitish ; but the thighs are always dark like the back. Ewes, which are scarce in collections, probably show less white on the fice, legs, and rump, and may have a tuft of longish hair on the nape of the neck.
As regards the distinction between O. po/i and O. amnion^ the following passage may be quoted from Wild Oxen, etc. of All Lands. The general characters of the horns of adult rams of the typical O. amnion are so different from those of the adult male O. poli that there is never any
In JVi/d Oxen, etc., it is stated that the face and front of the legs arc always white, whereas they are whitey brown only in old males of the typical race during summer.
84 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
difficulty in distinguishing between the two animals, which are further differentiated by colour, the former having the outer surface of the thighs coloured like the back, while in the latter it is white. In the Tibetan race, where the horns are often more angulated, they are always much more massive than those of poli, as well as considerably shorter.
In the Tibetan or Hodgson's argali the height at the shoulder seems to range from about 3^ feet to at least 3 feet 10 inches. The horns of the rams are less massive than in the typical race, and form a less open spiral, which does not exceed, and often falls short of, a complete circle. In nearly all instances their tips are broken, the wrinkles are but moderately prominent, and the outer front angle is, even in adult examples, frequently distinct. Adult males have a ruff of long whitish hair on the sides of the neck and the throat, which is believed to be present at all seasons ; and there is a crest of dark hair running from the nape of the neck to the withers. In the ewes, according to General A. Kinloch, a shorter ruff of dark hair is developed on the throat.
Apart from the throat -ruff, the general colour of the hair is very similar to that of the typical race, but the old rams seem to be always darker. Greyish brown is the general colour of the upper- parts, the throat, chest, under-parts, and inner side of the limbs being white or whitish. The whole of the upper part of the face is brown, at least in the winter dress, but the lower part is generally somewhat lighter. There is also a dark streak down the front of the legs below the knees and hocks in the winter dress ; but whether in summer these parts become lighter is not ascertained. Indeed, specimens in the short summer coat are desiderata.
In a ram measured by Major Greenway the length from the nose to the tip of the tail was 76 inches, and the weight about 212 lbs.
The Tibetan Argali 85
In a ram shot by Mr. P. H. G. Powell-Cotton, whose age was estimated at ten years, the shoulder- height was 3 feet 9 inches, the girth 4 feet 2 inches, and the weight 205 lbs. The largest pair of horns on record, which were obtained by Mr. Arnold Pike in Ladak, measure ^j inches along the front curve, and have a girth of i8| inches, and a tip-to-tip interval of 29 inches. The four next largest specimens recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward respectively measure 501!,, 50, 48^, and 48 inches in length; their basal girths being 1 8:^;, 17, 19, and 16 inches.
The range of this sheep includes the plateau of Tibet, extending from Northern Ladak at least as far east as the districts north of Sikhim, and northwards to the Kuen-lun and perhaps beyond the Mustag range, while firther east it may embrace the southern confines of the Gobi Desert. The animal is unknown to the southward of the main Himalayan axis, and does not even extend into Zanskar. In Ladak, where Chang-chenmo is one of its favourite resorts, the argali is seldom found below 1 5,000 feet, although descending to 1 2,000 feet during winter.
Captain F. E. S. Adair, who has recently described his experiences ot nyan stalking in Ladak,^ and obtained a ram with horns of 42^ inches in length, is of opinion that the -450 " express " does not carry a bullet of sufficient weight to afford satisfactory results in this description of sport ; the vitality of the animal being so great that it can carry a fairly well-placed bullet for a much longer distance than its pursuer, in the rarified atmosphere of Tibet, is capable of following. This, however, scarcely accords with the experience of Mr. Cobbold referred to above ; although it must be remembered that the latter gentleman used a Miinnlicher.
Although the large flocks of ewes and young rams which are met
' J Summer in High Asin.
86 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
with in the Chang-chenmo district can be approached within a short distance, the case is very different with the crafty old rams, which, during the summer, keep apart from the flocks and resort to the highest grounds on which subsistence is procurable. Even when they are in broken country, the stalking is difficult enough, but when in the open, it requires all the skill of the sportsman to get within range. Younger rams may be seen with two or three ewes even in the summer. As the general habits of the nyan are practically the same as those of Marco Polo's sheep, it will suffice to say that the pairing -season occurs in the middle of the winter, and that the lambs are born five months later — in May or June.
THE SHA, OR ASTOR AND LADAK WILD SHEEP
[Ovis vigiiei)
Native Names. — S/m, Shapo (male), Shamo (female), Ladaki ; Urin, IN AsTOR
(Plate HI. Fig. 3)
The sha of Astor and Ladak and the urial or oorial of the Punjab Salt Range are local races of a species distinguishable at a glance from both of the preceding kinds of wild sheep by its greatly inferior size and lighter horns. And since there is no danger of the sportsman mistaking the present animal for either of the latter, its description may be of the briefest. Inclusive of the two races, Ovis vignei may be described as a medium -sized wild sheep, with com- paratively slender and well- wrinkled horns of considerable length, which, when fully developed, curve forwards along the sides of the face, so that their tips come more or less nearly below the line of the
The Sha 87
eyes. The curve may be almost entirely in one plane, or in a spiral, and seldom exceeds one circle. The degree of prominence of the two front angles of the horns is liable to a considerable amount of local or individual variation. The ewes have shorter and nearly straight horns. In the adult rams a ruff of long hair is developed on the throat, at iirst commencing as two lateral tufts, which soon unite in front. In summer the general colour of the upper- parts varies from rufous brown to grey, while in winter it is greyish brown ; the tail, a disk on the buttocks, the inner surface and more or less of the lower portion of the legs, together with the under -parts, white or whitish ; throat-ruff varying from black and white to pure white with black at the roots ; muzzle and parts of side of face in old animals white or whitish ; a patch behind the shoulder, and in some instances a line on the iianks, certain markings on the outer side of the limbs, and the tip of the tail blackish brown or black.
In the true sha or urin of Ladak and Astor (the Astor animal being the type of the species) the height reaches to as much as 36 inches at the withers ; while the horns of old rams are massive at the base and form a wide circle, with more or less markedly divergent tips. Their front angles are rounded to a greater or less degree, so that they do not ever appear to form distinct beads or keels, and the transverse ridges on their front edge are never very coarse. The general tone of the summer coat tends rather to brown than to red ; and the ruff on the throat seems to be always smaller and mainly blackish brown.
In the thirteen largest horns of this race recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward in the last edition of his book on horn-measurements the length along the front curve varies between 32 and 39 inches, while the basal girth ranges between lo^ and 1 2:|: inches, although only three examples fall below 1 1 inches.
The head figured in Plate III. Fig. 3 is taken from a specimen in
88 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
the British Museum shot in Ladak by Mr. P. H. G. Powell-Cotton. Although the horns are by no means large, the animal is fully adult, so that the characters of the ruff may apparently be taken as distinctive of the race. It will be seen that this ruff is restricted to the upper part of the throat, and is mainly formed of black or blackish -brown hairs, although in front these are partially overlain by white hairs. And it is these latter which become more developed to form the long white ruff distinctive of the Punjab race. Although the present writer has never seen horns of the true sha showing the distinct beads on the front angles of those of the Punjab race depicted in Fig. 4 of the Plate, yet in other respects sha horns may be practically indistinguishable from those of urial, although their average basal girth is greater.
The geographical range of this race of wild sheep extends from Astor, where the animal is known as urin, to Zanskar, Ladak, and other districts in Tibet, where it is known as the sha. Eastwards the habitat extends through Gilgit to the confines of Afghanistan, where there is probably an intergrading between the present and the next race of the species. In Ladak and Zanskar these sheep are found at high elevations, in comparatively open country, where the herbage is scanty and forests do not exist. In Astor and Gilgit, on the other hand, they inhabit lower levels, where there are extensive grassy tracts below the forest-belt. Their habits, allowing for the difference in the nature of the country, are probably very similar to those of the Punjab and Afghanistan urial, although the accounts given of these by sportsmen are by no means so full as is desirable.
The Urial 89
THE URIAL, OR PUNJAB WILD SHEEP
[Ovis vlgne'i cycloceros)
Native Names. — Guch (male), Mhh (female), Persian ; Koh-i-diimba (mountain sheep), Pushtu ; Koch, Gad (male), Garand (female), Baluchi and Sindi ; Kar (male), Gad (female), Brahui ; Urial, Punjabi
(Plate III. Figs. 4, \'i)
The urial, which is merely a rather small and brightly coloured local race of Ov'is v'lgnei of Tibet, is the only wild sheep inhabiting India proper ; and since it is to be met with in localities comparatively close to civilisation, where stalking is by no means difficult, its pursuit does not entail the time and hardships inseparable from sheep-stalking in Tibet and other parts of Central Asia.
In height the rams seldom appear to exceed about 32 inches. The summer coat is a bright rufous brown, or foxy red ; and the rui^ on the throat and chest attains a great development, the long hairs on the front of its upper portion being pure white in old rams. Compared with those of the sha, the horns of the rams, which are usually slightly spiral, form a less open and more compact spiral, with their tips convergent and approximating to the eyes. Very frequently also their two front angles are prominent and form distinct nodose beads, or keels, between which the front surface is concave and marked by bold and widely separated transverse ridges, as in the old ram from Afghanistan forming the subject of Plate III. Fig. 4. In other specimens, however, as in a mounted male from Peshawur and two heads in the British Museum obtained by Dr. Aitchison in Afghanistan,
N
90 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
the front angles are much less prominent, and the horns are much more like those of the sha. Such differences are not solely due to age ; and in the case of some specimens it is, as already mentioned, very difficult to distinguish between sha and urial horns.
In the thirteen largest specimens of typical urial horns catalogued by Mr. Rowland Ward, the length along the front curve ranges between 32^ and 39^ inches, while the basal girth varies between 8^ and 11 inches, six of the specimens measuring less than 10 inches. It is true that there is one specimen with a basal circumference of iif inches (the length being 30^ inches) ; but, speaking generally, it may be affirmed that urial horns are of inferior girth to those of the sha. Now the specimen on which 0. cycloceros was founded agrees with the general sha type rather than with the urial type, so that there is con- siderable probability of 0. cycloceros being really a synonym of O. vignei, instead of, as commonly supposed, indicating the Punjab form.^ And if this be so, it is, strictly speaking, no longer permissible to call the latter O. vignei cycloceros. But the difficulty is to know what name to use in place of this title. Some years ago the urial of Kelat in northern Baluchistan was described by Mr. A. O. Hume as a distinct species, under the name of 0. blanfonli, on account of the circumstance that in the type specimen the horns appeared to form a more open spiral, and consequently to be more widely separated at the tips than is the case in the Punjab animal. According to the amended measurements given by Mr. Rowland Ward, the length of the horns in the type specimen is 36 inches, their basal girth 9 J; inches, and the interval between their tips ij inches. In the original description Mr. Hume contrasted this specimen with a Punjab skull in which the tip-to-tip interval was only 5^ inches. Mr. Hume possesses, however, a second skull from the neighbourhood of
1 This statement must be taken as superseding the one on p. 1 68 of Wild Oxc?i, etc., Mr. Rowland Ward's lists having been improved since the publication of the latter.
The Urial
91
Kelat in which the last-named interval is 1 1 inches, the length of the horns being 37-^ inches ; and there are two others known from Baluchistan in which this interval is respectively 10 and lof inches. Moreover, in the Punjab head figured below on the present page, the tip-to-tip interval is i8{ inches, and in Mr. Rowland Ward's book there are several specimens recorded from the Punjab, Sind, and Afghanistan in which this interval exceeds 16 inches. Consequently there do not appear to be any sufficient grounds for the separation of the Kelat urial as a distinct local
|
IP |
m |
J |
^ |
|
r> |
■'^-- |
1^ |
¥ |
|
>^V^^|j^ |
i |
^ |
Fig. 12. — Head of Male Urial. From the "record" specimen shot by Col. F. H. Taylor in the Punjab.
race ; and the name bhuifordi would thus seem to be available to replace cycloceros. But, unfortunately, the name Ovis arkal was applied, at a much earlier date than Mr. Hume's description of the Kelat animal, to a wild sheep trom the Kopet-Dagh range, which forms the boundary between Turkestan and North Persia, to the eastward of the Caspian. And, as stated in Wild Oxen, etc. of All Lands, this 0. arkal appears inseparable trom cycloceros. If this view be correct, the name arkal has the right of priority tor the Punjab wild sheep. In the absence, however, of skins
92 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
for comparison, it is almost impossible to be sure that 0. arkal may not indicate yet another local race of the present widely -spread species. Monsieur Dauvergne, in an interesting paper on Asiatic big game published in the Bulletin of the Paris Museum of Natural History for 1898, has indeed suggested (p. 217) that 0. m^kal may be the same as 0. blanfordi, which he keeps apart from O. cycloceros. Under these difficult circum- stances it seems best for the present to retain the latter title for the Punjab race ot the urial.
The typical urial occurs in the Salt Range of the Punjab, whence it extends into the Cis-Indus ranges of the Western Punjab and Sind, and so on into Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Southern Persia, and apparently Russian Turkestan and parts of the Caucasus. The wild sheep of the two districts last mentioned is the aforesaid Ovis arkal, which may possibly indicate another race. It has been said that the Persian urial lacks the throat-ruff, but this is certainly not the case with a specimen from near Teheran figured in a work by the present writer entitled Horns and Hoofs.
Urial in the Punjab are met with in low hills or on undulating ground deeply intersected with narrow gullies and ravines, usually pre- ferring the scarped hill-sides to bush or jungle. In the Jhelam district much of the ground they frequent consists of reddish coloured rocks, against which their foxy red coats are almost invisible except at very close quarters. Both sexes are commonly seen together, although during summer the old rams separate themselves to a certain extent from the flocks, which may vary in number from as few as three or tour to as many as twenty or thirty. In the Punjab the pairing-season takes place in September, and the young, of which there may be either one or two at a birth, are produced about six months later. In many of their habits urial are very like ordinary domesticated sheep, their usual cry being a bleat, while when frightened they utter a shrill whistle and stamp vigorously on the ground with their fore-feet. When the sun shines
The Bharal 93
with its full power on the hill-sides and ravines where they dwell, the heat in summer becomes excessive, and the urial then seek shelter under shady rocks or among the jungle, feeding only in the comparative cool- ness of the mornings and evenings. In the cold season, especially when the sky is cloudy, and probably also during the rains, they may be seen on the move at all hours. They are better than the argali at getting over rough and rocky ground, although decidedly inferior in this respect to the bharal. In undisturbed districts they seldom wander tar from their feeding-grounds, and often descend into the open fields near by to graze on the young wheat and other crops. On the other hand, when they are much shot at, they retire to a considerable distance from their graz- ing-grounds before reposing for the mid-day hours. The steep ridges and ravines among which they dwell afford excellent stalking-ground, if only the sportsman can manage to walk over the loose stones and shingle without alarming his game. And even when thus disturbed, the flock will frequently be found in the adjoining ravine.
THE BHARAL, OR BLUE SHEEP
{Ov/'s nahnrci)
Native Names. — Bharal^ Bharm\ and Bharut, Hindustani ; Na or Sua., Ladaki ; Wa OR War in the Sutlej Valley ; Nervati, Nepali ; Nao OR Gnao of the Bhotias
(Plate III. Figs. 5, ^n)
Whatever difficulty may be experienced in distinguishing between some of the other species and races of wild sheep (and in truth, owing to the close resemblance existing between several of them and the
94 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
difference between their summer and winter coats, they are a very puzzling group) there is none at all in the case of the bharal or blue sheep of Tibet, which is markedly distinct from all the rest, and makes a step in the direction of the goats.
One of the most striking features ot this species is to be found in the horns, which in the rams show a peculiar S-like curvature, and are rounded or sub-quadrangular at the base, with the whole surface (save for the annual rings of growth) nearly smooth and devoid of the transverse wrinkles and grooves so characteristic of these appendages in other Asiatic wild sheep. The horns of the ewes (Plate III. Fig. ^a) are also vmlike those of other sheep, being short, closely approximated at their bases, much compressed, and curving upwards and outwards in a somewhat scimitar-like fashion. Then, too, there are no traces of the glands below the eyes found in all the species of the genus hitherto noticed. Neither is the coloration less distinctive ; there being a distinct black stripe running along the flanks to divide the fawn of the back from the white of the belly, as well as similar stripes down the front of all four legs, and a dark streak down the face.
In this latter respect, as well as in the absence of face-glands, the bharal is indeed more like a goat than an ordinary wild sheep, and it may consequently be well asked why the creature is classed among the latter rather than among the former animals, especially as the tail is relatively longer than in the other Asiatic wild sheep. To this it may be replied that the bharal lacks the beard found in the males of all species of goats, as well as the unpleasant odour so strongly in evidence in the latter. Moreover, there are glands between the hoofs in all the feet, whereas in goats such glands are never present in the hind limbs. Still it has to be acknowledged that the distinction between sheep and goats is, after all, but very slight, and that the bharal forms one of the connecting links between the two groups.
The Bharal 95
In size the bharal stands about 36 inches at the withers ; its build is rather heavy, the head long and narrow, the ears short, and the coat, which is very thick and dense, without trace of either a mane on the neck or a ruff on the throat. The general colour of the hair on the back and the rest of the upper- parts is brownish grey with a tinge of slaty blue, tending more to brown in summer and more to slaty grey in winter. The under-parts of the body, the inner and hind surfaces of the legs, and the buttocks as far as the root of the tail are pure white. In full-grown rams the face and chest, a stripe running down the front of the legs (interrupted by a white patch at the knees), a band along the lower part of the ilanks bordering the white below, as well as the terminal two-thirds ot the tail, are black. These black markings are, however, wanting in the ewes. The colour of the horns is blackish olive. A full-grown bharal is stated to weigh about one hundred and thirty pounds.
The longest pair of bharal horns on record were formerly in the possession of the late Brian Hodgson, and were stated to measure 32 inches along the curve. The next largest are 31-^ inches in length, with a basal circumference of 13^ inches, and a tip- to- tip interval of 22^ inches. Three specimens are on record whose length is 30 inches or over but less than 3 I ; while there are five known whose length reaches 29 inches but falls short of 30.
Bharal are met with in Tibet and the adjacent districts at high elevations, being seldom found in winter below 10,000 feet, and in summer ascending to between 14,000 and 16,000 feet, or even higher. Their range extends from the main axis of the Himalaya in the south to the Kuen-lun and Altyn-tag in the north. Eastwards they are known to extend as far as Moupin, in Eastern Tibet, while westwards they range to Shigar, in Baltistan, and to the neighbourhood of Gujhal, in the upper Hunza valley near Passu. The fact of their occurrence in the latter district has been recently recorded by Captain A. H. M'Mahon in a paper
96 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
contributed to the "Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society for 1899.
As bharal approximate to the goats in structure and coloration, so they show certain resemblances to the latter in the matter of habits. For, although displaying an ovine habit in dwelling on open undulating country and resting at mid-day on or near their feeding-ground, these animals are much more active mountaineers than other Asiatic wild sheep, ascending- steep cliffs with comparative ease, and taking as rapidly as possible to diificult places when disturbed. The traveller in the more remote valleys in the neighbourhood of Leh may occasionally have the good fortune to stumble on a flock of bharal feeding or reposing on his line of route, as once happened to the present writer. On such occasions, with fair luck, several rams may be obtained without much difficulty, since, after being fired at, the members of the flock will run but a short distance before turning round to gaze at the intruder on their domains, after the manner of sheep in general, whether wild or tame. And a beautiful sight it is to see these handsome animals either lying down on the turf by the side of a mountain stream or standing at gaze. Many of the valleys in which they are found are strewn with boulders or masses of rock projecting through the turf, so that at a short distance it is frequently difficult to distinguish between boulders and bharal. The number of individuals in a flock commonly varies from ten or less to forty or fifty, but occasionally there may be as many as a hundred in company. In some districts on the Upper Indus the old rams are stated to betake themselves to feeding -grounds quite apart from the rest of the flock ; but in certain places, at any rate, both sexes may be seen together at least during a portion of the summer. It does not appear that bharal and sha are ever found together, but bharal and ibex have been observed on the same ground, and bharal and tahr seen actually grazing in company.
The Sind Wild Goat 97
THE SIND WILD GOAT
[Capra hi reus b/ythi)
Native Names. — Pasang (male), Boz (female), and, commonly, Boz- pasang, Persian ; Boi-z, Pushtu ; Sair, Phashin, Pachhi, and Borz- kiihi (female), Baluchi ; Chunk (male), Hit, and Haraf (female), Brahui ; Ter AND Sarah, Sindi
(Plate IV. Figs, i, ii^)
As already mentioned, the goats (under which general term the naturalist includes ibex) are so closely connected by means of the bharal and other aberrant forms with the sheep that it is very hard to draw up a definition for either of the two groups. No goat has, however, glands either on the face or between the hoofs of the hind-feet, while the bucks are furnished with a more or less conspicuous beard on the chin, and likewise exhale the well-known " goaty " odour. Moreover, whereas wild sheep always have a short summer coat, in the majority of goats the coat is more or less long and shaggy at all seasons. In the typical genus Capra the horns of the full- grown males, which are of great relative length, arise close together on the forehead, and are more or less compressed or angulated, springing above the plane of the forehead either in a scimitar-like curve or in a spiral. In the does the horns are much shorter and placed further apart at their bases.
The Sind wild goat — the Sind ibex of sportsmen — is a near relative of the Persian wild goat {Capra hirciis agagrus), which is itself nothing more than the wild representative of the domesticated goat. The ordinary Persian wild goat is an animal of comparatively slender build, standing about 37 inches at the withers. In old males the long scimitar-shaped backwardly curving horns are compressed, with the front edge sharp and keeled for some distance above its base, after which it carries several bold
o
98 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
and widely separated knobs. On their inner side the horns are nearly flat, externally they are convex, and posteriorly rounded off. Although occasionally directed outwards, their tips are usually inclined inwards ; throughout their length they are marked by faint transverse striations, and in colour they are nearly black. In the does (Plate IV. Fig. la) the horns are less compressed, not longer than the head, and devoid of knobs. The
Fig. 13. — The Sind Wild Goat. From a buck killed in the Lora Haman Hills, north-west of Kelat, by Sir Robert Harvey.
beard of the bucks is very long, especially in winter, and in old animals occupies the whole width of the chin, although in their younger brethren restricted to its middle portion. During the winter the hair on the neck and shoulders becomes markedly longer than in summer ; and in the colder portions of its habitat the animal develops a coat of woolly under-fur, or pashm, at the base of the hairs. In winter the general colour of the upper-parts may be described as some shade of brownish grey, and in summer as reddish brown ; but at all seasons the very old bucks tend to
The Sind Wild Goat
99
become paler. On the under surface of the body, as well as on the inner sides of the buttocks and thighs, the hair is white or whitish. Although some degree of individual variation is observable in the extent and form of the black and white markings, it may be said, speaking generally, that in the full-grown and sub-adult bucks the face, a broad streak from the nape of the neck to the root of the tail, the whole of the latter, a collar on the
Fig. 14.— Skull and Horns of Male Sind Wild Goat. From a specimen in the Collection of Mr. A. O. Hmnc.
neck expanding below into a breastplate, the throat, the chin, the beard, the front surfaces of the legs, with the exception of the knees, and a stripe along the flanks defining the brown of the back from the white of the under-parts and joining the dark streak on the front of the thighs, are dark blackish brown, passing in some examples almost into pure black on the beard, face, and certain other parts. The knees, the hinder and inner surfaces of the fore-legs immediately below, together with the hocks and the corresponding surfaces of the lower portion of the hind-legs, are white.
loo Great and Small Game of India, etc.
Compared with the Persian animal, the Sind wild goat appears to be of slightly inferior size, with the horns of the bucks either entirely without knobs or carrying only a few very small-sized ones. The ground-colour of the coat is likewise decidedly paler. Sometimes the neck and the fore part of the body behind the dark collar are much lighter than the rest of the animal, the bucks often showing a large patch of dirty white on each side of the neck, and having the greater part of the body behind the shoulder- collar (which is dark mahogany brown) nearly pure white. Sir Robert Harvey describes them as very ditferent-looking animals to the specimen figured in Wild Oxen, etc. of All Lands ; but they would be more like a buck from Mount Ararat in the British Museum, which has light-coloured fore-quarters. Another feature is that, in proportion to their lengths, the horns are frequently rather more closely approximated at their tips than in the Persian wild goat. The three finest pairs of horns on record respectively measure ^2'^, 48, and 46! inches in length, with basal girths of 7I, 8, and yf inches, and tip-to-tip intervals of 8f , 20^, and 14 inches. The second specimen is an exception to the general rule in respect to the interval between the horn-tips being comparatively small.
The Sind race of the wild goat is an inhabitant of the mountains of the country from which it takes its name, as well as those of Baluchistan. In the eastern districts of the last-named country it probably passes imper- ceptibly into the Persian race of Capra hircus. Whether the wild goat ot Afghanistan is identical with the Persian or the Sind representative of the species remains for future determination.
In connection with the names of the Sind wild goat in its own country, it is interesting to note that one of its titles is 7>r, which suggests affinity with the term Tiir, applied to the wild goats of the Caucasus, and likewise with Tahr, the well-known appellation of the Himalayan representative of the short-horned goats.
In Sind, at any rate, the present race inhabits a more barren and less
Great &i Small Game of India&lc, Plate IV. y7
PLLbUaheci byRowloTid. WarcLLtd' ■
PLATE IV
la. Sind Wild Goat. 4. Pir Panjal Markhor.
za. Himalayan Ibex. 5, ^a. Suleman Markhor. 3. Astor Markhor. 6. Himalayan Tahr.
7. Nilgiri Tahr.
The Baltistan Ibex loi
wooded country than does its Persian representative, and it appears to be found at no very great elevation above the sea-level. Allowing for this difference, its habits are probably very similar.
THE BALTISTAN IBEX
{Capni sibirica wardi)
Native Names of Asiatic Ibex generally. — Ski/i or Sakin (male), Dabino or Dajimo (female), Ladaki ; A.'f/, Kashmiri ; Tcmgrol in KuLU ; Buz in Kunawar ; Skin, Balti
The Asiatic ibex, of which the race inhabiting the Thian Shan range and Siberia is the typical representative (C sibirica typica), is one of the handsomest of all the wild goats, its long, sweeping, and boldly knotted horns being much thicker and more massive than those of the Arabian ibex, while they greatly exceed in length all known specimens of the horns of the typical, or Alpine ibex. Apart from the special characters of its several local races, the Asiatic ibex presents the following distinctive features. The height at the withers reaches to between 40 and 42 inches, the general build is heavy, with the legs coarse and clumsy ; and the long and pointed beard occupies the middle of the chin. In the long and scimitar-shaped horns ot the males the front surface is very broad, with no bevelling away of the outer edge, and bearing a number of prominent and thick knots or knobs, of which the outer side is almost as much developed as the inner. In section these horns form a complete triangle, with the hinder angle compressed. Female horns are very much smaller and much more widely separated at their bases, and are coarsely rugose or ringed, without knots ; their transverse section being oval at the base but compressed above; they curve slightly backwards. The fur is coarse, dense, and somewhat brittle ;
I02 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
along the back of the old bucks it is elongated to form a kind of crest, and in winter, at any rate, it is underlain by a thick coat of under-fur, or pashm, which may be visible at the surface during the season when the coat is being shed.
The colour of the Asiatic ibex varies so much according to sex, age, and locality, that it is a somewhat difficult matter to give a descrip- tion which shall be applicable to all the local varieties of the species. And the difficulty is increased by the lack of a sufficiency of skins from different localities for comparison. Speaking generally, it may be said that in summer the prevailing colour of the upper-parts is some shade of brown, varying from whitey brown to chocolate (in old males), and in some instances with a large buffish-white saddle on the hinder part of the back, and a smaller patch of the same colour on the withers. The under-parts may be nearly the same colour as the back, or markedly lighter. In winter the coat is generally paler, being often yellowish or dirty white, but, especially in old males in the early part of the season, it may be chocolate, with the aforesaid light- saddle. At all times of the year a chocolate streak generally, if not invariably, runs down the middle of the back ; and the beard and tail, together with the legs, are generally dark chocolate -brown, although the latter may be white on the hinder surface. The females, which are considerably smaller than the males, are generally more uniformly coloured, being greyish brown with dark legs ; but in one race they are lighter-coloured, with the under-parts pure white. The winter coat appears to become lighter coloured as the season advances, owing to bleaching by exposure to the weather.
In the typical Siberian race of the Asiatic ibex, of which a specimen in the British Museum, from the Thian Shan, is figured in Plate XXIV. of Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All Lands, the general colour is light brown, with most of the under-parts only a little lighter than the flanks.
The Baltistan Ibex 103
the chocolate streak down the back being very well defined, and the abdomen and the hinder half of the lower portion of the legs white. There is no trace of a white saddle in either of two mounted specimens in the British Museum, one of which is from the Altai and the other
from the Thian Shan. In winter the colour is probably paler than in summer, but it is not easy to ascertain whether the Museum specimens are in the winter or the summer coat.
It is not certain whether this typical race (C. sibirica typica) enters the area under consideration.
I02 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
along the back of the old bucks it is elongated to form a kind of crest, and in winter, at any rate, it is underlain by a thick coat of under-fur, or pashm, which may be visible at the surface during the season when the coat is being shed.
The colour of the Asiatic ibex varies so much according to sex, age, and locality, that it is a somewhat difficult matter to give a descrip- tion which shall be applicable to all the local varieties of the species. And the difficulty is increased by the lack of a sufficiency of skins from different localities for comparison. Speaking generally, it may be said that in summer the prevailing colour of the upper-parts is some shade of brown, varying from whitey brown to chocolate (in old males), and in some instances with a large huffish -white saddle on the hinder part of the back, and a smaller patch of the same colour on the withers. The under-parts may be nearly the same colour as the back, or markedly lighter. In winter the coat is generally paler, being often yellowish or dirty white, but, especially in old males in the early part of the season, it may be chocolate, with the aforesaid light- saddle. At all times of the year a chocolate streak generally, if not invariably, runs down the middle of the back ; and the beard and tail, together with the legs, are generally dark chocolate -brown, although the latter may be white on the hinder surface. The females, which are considerably smaller than the males, are generally more uniformly coloured, being greyish brown with dark legs ; but in one race they are lighter-coloured, with the under-parts pure white. The winter coat appears to become lighter coloured as the season advances, owing to bleaching by exposure to the weather.
In the typical Siberian race of the Asiatic ibex, of which a specimen in the British Museum, from the Thian Shan, is figured in Plate XXIV. of Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All Lands, the general colour is light brown, with most of the under-parts only a little lighter than the flanks,
The Baltistan Ibex
lO
the chocolate streak down the back being very well defined, and the abdomen and the hinder half of the lower portion of the legs white. There is no trace of a white saddle in either of two mounted specimens in the British Museum, one of which is from the Altai and the other
Fig. 15. — Male Baltistan Ibex. From the mounted type specimen in the British Museum.
from the Thian Shan. In winter the colour is probably paler than in summer, but it is not easy to ascertain whether the Museum specimens are in the winter or the summer coat.
It is not certain whether this typical race (C. sihirica typicci) enters the area under consideration.
I04 Great and Small Game of India, etc.
The Baltistan ibex, of which a description by Mr. F. W. True will be found on p. 282 of the work last cited, is a very dark-coloured animal, with a very large buffish-white saddle (bisected by the chocolate dorsal streak) occupying the whole of the hinder part of the back, and another smaller patch