': ..

' ..

THE GAME ANIMALS OF I DIA,

BURMA, MALAYA, AND TIBET I

.,. .. ,

PREFACE

SEVEN years have elapsed since the publication of the original quarto edition of thi s work, which is /lOW out

of print. D uring that interval ons'derable progress

has been made in the recogn itiol of local races of many

of the animals described therein; some of these races,

sllch as the Shan brown bear and the Tibetan bruan,

adding very largely to the geographical range of the

speCles. Anoth r important addition to our knowledge

is the occurrence of a goral in Burma.

Descriptions of these newly recogll i ed forms, to­

gether with much other important information, have

been .incorporated in the present edition, which has

thus been brought thoroughly up to date.

Another innovation is the inclusion of the M alay

P eninsula, which is now an i fl tegral portion of the Bri tish

Empire, in the area coming within the purview of the

volume.

In its present small r and cheaper form the work

will be found more convenient to the sport man ' in the

field than the original edition.

Since the text was in type 1 have had an opportunity

of seeing the head and neck of the ·red serow, an animal

which has never previously come under my no tice. v

CO N T E NT S

I n troduction

T he Indian or Asiatic E1<:phanl

T he G reat Ind ian Rhinoceros

T he Singp 0 Rhi noceros

The Javan R hillocero

T he Snmatran Rhinoce ros

The M alay T apir

T he Kiang, or Tibetan Wild Ass

The G hor-Kh ar, or Bal uchi Wild Ass

T he Gaur, or I ndi an Bison

T he Gayal, or Mithan

T he Bantin, or T sai ne

T he ak .

T he Arn a, or Ind ian Bu ffa lo

Marco Polo's Sheep .

T he Tibetan Argali, or H odgson's Sheep

T he Shapo, or U rial .

T he Bharal, or Blue Sheep

T he Sind W ild G oa t

The Sakin, or Asiatic I bex

The Markhor

T he T ah r

The lilgiri Tahr, or Ibex

T he Serow

T he H imalayan Gorals

T he Burmese Goral VII

!lACE

105 10 8

1 13

121

Gan1e Animals of India, etc.

T he Ashy Ti betan Goral

The Grey Tibetan G oral

Th e T akin

Th e Nilgai, or Bl ue Bull

The Ch ousingha, or Four-horned An telope

The Bl ackbuck, or Jpdian Antelope

The Chirll, or T ibctan Antclope

The G oa, or Tibetan Gazell e

The G oitred Gazelle.

The Chinkara, or Indi an Gazelle

The Hangul , or Kashmir Stag

The Shou, or Sik him Stag.

Thorold's D eer, or he L hasa Stag

The Sam ba r

The Chital , or I nd ian Spotted Deer

Th e Pa ra, or Hog-Deer

T he Swamp-Deer, or Barasingha

The Thami n, or Eld's Dee r

The Mllntjac

T he Tibe ta n MUlltjac

The Tenasserim MUlltjac

The Tibetan Tufted Deer

The Kastllra, or Musk-Deer

Tl e Meminna Chevrotain

The Napu Chevro tain

The Ka nchil devrotain

The I ndi an Wild Boar

Andaman and Nicobar Wild Pigs

Th e Pigmy Hog

The Li n .

The Tiger

T he Leopard

The Oun ce, or Snow-L eopard

The Clouded Tiger .

The G olden or Bay Cat

Vlll

PAGE

15 5 156

15 7 164-171

175 184-18 9 192

201

208

21 7 22 1

Contents

T he Fi shing-Cat

The Leopard-Cat

Th e Ma nul Cat

T he D esert-Cat

The Jungle-Cat

The Caracal

T he Lynx

The Hunting-Leopard

The l ndian Civet

Th e Binturong .

The Striped Hyx na

The Wolf

The Indian W olf

The Dholc, or Wild Dog

'fhe Panda

The Short-Tail ed Panda

The Brown Bear

The Tibetan Bl ue Bear

The Himalayan Black Bea r

The Bruan, or Malay Bear

T he Aswal, or Sloth-Bcar

M armots

Hares

IX

PACE

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA

Pages [0 [ nnd 103.-Dele "the late" from before the na me of Major ro. H . Taylor , and add that th e specimen fi g ured cam e from W aziristan .

Page 139 et seq.-M,·. R. 1. Pocock (Abs/I' . Proc. Zool. Soc. J 908, p . 12), wh employs the name Capricomis fO I' the scrows and transfers Nemodld!dlls to the gorals, has describ d four new ,'aces 0 the form er, which, wit h the "ctenrion of the generic name usual ly employed, a re brieRy charac teri s~d as fo llows :-(1) T he Kashmiri race (N. slIlJIatrcllSis ltu1I1ei), wi th a ru fo us brown hend . (2) T he Chamba race (N. s. ,-odoni), with a patch on th e throat and the a rea between t he two b"anches of the lower jaw, as well as the under-parts and lower portions of the limbs, white, and the coat long, th ick, and provid ed wit h under-fur. (3) The D arjiling race (N. s. jamraclii), wi th a sh or t black coat, bl.tckish under-parts, and the lower portions of the limbs pal'tially rufo Lls. (4) The Selangor race (N. s. robillsoni), \ hich is black, wi t h a sca rcely appreciable amount of reel in the mane.

Page '42, line 19 from top, for NelJlO1-ltd!dlls bubalil1l1s !JlpiCliS read Nemorlla:rllts sltlllatrensis typicus.

Page '48 et seq .- Mr . P ocock (op . cit .) regards the g rey goral as the original species, an I accordin gly pl'Oposes th e nam ltodgsolli for the Uro/I'aglls gorat of this vol ume, and transfers the desig nati II goral to U. bedfirrli . Confusion will, however, be avoided by allowi ng matters to rcmain in statu qllo as rega l'ds nomenclaturs;.

Page 157 et srq.-The Bhutan takin lwp b 'Cl dcs('rihtl{ by myself (Field, 1'01. cx. p. 887) as a dist inct race, :hal" .:tu·i ed hy ir~ relati 'ely small horns, under the name of Budorcas fll,).jc%r '!.I.,ltill i,

Page ; 92 et seq.-The Yarkanci , or SaJk ik, ,;azdle has b,tll n ,sed by myself (op. cit. vol. cxi . p. 499, ' 908 ) to d'c I.tnk ot a speci -~, CflzdJa varcandemis, with a local race, C. )'. kl1'"I?lti, in E t(·1'Il P"I'sla and Baluchistan .

Page 241 et seq.-T he hog-deer is I'(pnscntcc! in Siam by a larg unspotted racc to which (Field, vol. cxi . p. 5~3, 1908) I ha\c C\'iVCll the name CervuJ porcil/us !tedi. Th e stag fig ured Oll page 244' a S})'f'Ull('ll

of the Siamese Schomburgk 's ci ec l' (C. Jchombllrw;ki) .

Page z 63. - The Chinese lTIu ntjac is probablv a di~tillrt spu·'C". L'fI"Vu/Ui

sclateri (see Field, vol. cx. p . 667, 1907)

A pri/ '90~. J ,

SUPPLEMENT TO

TI-IE GAME ANIMALS OF INDIA

I this Supplement, which includes the list of addenda and corrigenda previously is ued, reference is made to t he more impor tant additions to our knowledge of the game animals of India, T ibet, and Malaya made since the publication of the volume.

T he recognition of the fact that Moupin is in the Chinese province of Sze-chuen, instead of, as previously supposed, in eastern Tibet, may render it advisable, in the event of a new edition of the work being called for, to reconsider t he limits of the area included in its scope.

R. LYDEKKER.

H ARPENDEN, A t/gm t J 9! 1 .

THE INDIAN E LEPHANT

(Page 6)

Assyrian records afford practically conclusive evidence of the former existence of elephants in the Euphrates valley; confirmation of this being afforded by the discovery in Armenia during the Crimean war of fossil or sub-fossil remains of an elephant apparently inter-

'\.-•

Supplement

mediate between the living Indian species and the .mammoth, and described as Elephas armeniacus.

There seems, however, little doubt t hat the Euphrates elephant was a western race of the Indian species, which was k illed off during the early historic period.

T H E GREAT INDIA N R HINOCEROS

(Page 26)

Following the late Dr. W . T. Blanford, it is stated 'on page 30 that the range of this species is mainly, if not en ti rely restricted to the countries east of the Tista. Later. information (see a letter from Col. Manners

mith in the 1-"ield for 1909, vol. cxiv. p. 177) shows that the animal abounds in parts of the Nepal Terai, where it seems to be more abundant t han in its supposed last strongholds in Kuch Behar and Assam. During a rhinoceros hunt organised by the Nepal Government in January and February 1907, a large number of adults were killed and half-a-dozen calves captured alive.

The rhinoceros referred to on page 31 as having lived in the London Zoological Gardens for over twenty years actually lived there from 1864 to 1904.

THE SH PO 01< URIAL

(Page 99)

The specimen of the Baluchi or Trans-Indus uriaJ, eferred to on page 101 and figured on page 103, came

from Waziristan, where a head with horns measuring 4 It inches in length was obtained by Major G. Dodd in 1911. The latter specimen shows a great develop­ment of the lower front angle, which seems characteristic of the horns of the Trans- Indus race. On pp. 101 and 103 "the late" should be deleted from before the name of M ajor Taylor.

2

\ ,..

Supplement

HE SAKIN, OR ASI TIC IBEX

(Page J 13)

Th following emendations in regard to the range of this species were made by a writer in the Indian Field, where it is stated that in British territory the northern limit i formed, roughly speaking, by the Karakoram range, on the Indian side of which the ibex is found in all suitable localities, and thence southward through Baltistan, parts of Ladak, Chamba, Lahul, and Spiti , to the right bank of the Sutlej, which sharply defines its limi s in that direction . On p. 50+ of Blanford's volume 011 Mammalia in the Fauna of India it is, how­ever, stated that the ibex "inhabits the higher Himalayas, as far east at all events as the source of the Ganges." This is incorrect, no ibex being found in t he country between the Sutlej and the sources of the Ganges. nd it may be noted that although Blanford gi ves local names for the ibex in all the grounds where it is found, he has given none for it in this e ' tent of country, for the reason that the animal never existed there, the deep gorge of the Sutlej in its highest course aft r .leaving Tibet fom ing an impassable barrier.

THE MARKHOR

(Page 12 I)

According to a paper by P ince P. S. Trubeckoi, published in the Russian journal, Prirota i oclzota, Moskva, oJ. xxxviii. p. 40, 19 10, the range of the markhor extends into Bokhara and the adjacent province of Ferghana, ill Chinese Turkestan.

3