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Show 1887.] MR. A. O. HUME ON BUDORCAS TAXICOLOR. 483 1. Remarks on certain Asiatic Ruminants.-I. BUDORCAS TAXICOLOR, Hodgson. The Gnu-goat or Takin. By A. O. H U M E , C.B., F.Z.S. [Received May 2, 1887.] The very peculiarly shaped horns of the adult male Budorcas taxicolor (fig. 1, p. 484) are well known. The older the animal grows the longer do the terminal straight portions become. The pair figured measure (taken from the base of the main ridge behind, along this ridge over the front of the horn so far as this ridge is traceable, and thence along the curve of the horn outside to the tip) 22 (right) and 22-5 (left horn) inches in length, and 13 and 13*5 in girth at base ; they are 10*75 wide from tip to tip, with a greatest interior width of 11*25 inches. The largest pair that I have met with measured 24*25 inches in length, had a basal girth of 12*75, a tip to tip width of 12*75, and a greatest interior width of 13 inches'. M y second drawing (fig. 2, p. 484) shows the horns, according to Blyth (as named by him in the Calcutta Museum), of the female. They are very similar, it will be observed, to those of the male, but smaller, stumpier (if I may use such a word), the terminal portions less developed. Two pairs of this type measure : - Length, R. 16, L. 16 ; basal girth, R. 10, L. 10; spread 8*75 ; greatest width inside 9*75. Length, R. 16*25, L. 16 ; basal girth, R. 9, L. 9*25 ; spread 7*25 ; greatest width inside 8*75 2. Milne-Edwards also, in his • Reeherches des Mammiferes,' p. 369, says, ** Chez la femelle, les comes ont a peu pres la meme forme que chez le male, mais elles sont peu courbes et moins robustes." So he, like Blyth, considered the horns of the two sexes to be similar. But there is a wholly different type of horn in this species, accurately represented in m y third drawing (fig. 3, p. 484), and which Blyth (who, however, had only a miserable wreck of a specimen to go by) set down as those of the young. There is here none of that apparent bending down on themselves of the horns near their bases which characterizes the two other forms. The horns in this case have no gnu-like twist, are circular in section throughout, comparatively short, and, beyond the basal bend, straightish, with only a slight sigmoidal flexure, set very wide apart, diverging widely from each other, very thick and more or less ribbed at base, diminishing rapidly in thickness, and their terminal portions more or less smooth, with longitudinal strias greatly resembling those of the Himalayan Capricorn (or Serow). Now I venture to submit that by no possible process of growth could horns of this third type develop into horns of either the first or second types. 1 In some horns of this type the terminal portions incline inwards much more decidedly. 2 This is the pair figured. |