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89
FAUNA

antelope[1]. The first Englishman to shoot a takin was Mr C. H. Mears, travelling in Tibet with the late Mr J. W. Brooke. Mr Fergusson's description is interesting:

This little known animal stands as high as a small bullock, but is much more heavily built. Its legs are especially short and thick, and its feet are shaped like those of a goat, only much larger. I have seen some tracks as much as six inches in diameter. They have Roman noses, black curved horns, and short cut-off ears; the hair of the cow is creamy white, but most of the bulls have a reddish-grey coat, a short tail like a goat, and to some extent resemble the musk ox[2].

One is almost disposed to identify him with the tarand, "an animal as big as a bullock, having a head like a stag, or a little bigger, two stately horns with large branches, cloven feet, hair long like that of a furred Muscovite, I mean a bear, and a skin almost as hard as steel armour."

Takin are found at high altitudes in the lofty mountain ranges bordering on the north and east of the Putao district and not elsewhere in Burma.

Deer of four well-known species are abundant. These are Thamin (brow antlered deer, Cervus eldi), the handsome typical stag of Burma[3]; Sat (sambar, C. unicolor); Dayè (hog-deer, C. porcinus); and Gyi (barking deer, Cervulus muntjac). There are also small mouse deer, or chevrotain, of two kinds.

The tapir is rare, found only in Mergui, Tavoy, and Amherst. Wild pig are fairly common in most forest tracts; and do much damage to maize, millet, and other crops. Some of the old boars have tushes 9½ inches long. The country is not suitable for pigsticking, which has never been adopted as a form of sport in the Province. Burmans have an ingenious method of getting rid of pigs damaging cultivation. At various parts of a field liable to incursion,

  1. ↑ Game Animals of India. Lyddeker, 157–158. In Farthest Burma. Kingdon Ward, 92.
  2. ↑ Adventure, Sport, and Travel on Tibetan Steppes. Fergusson, 140.
  3. ↑ Colonel G. H. Evans.
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