le
to go through all that has been written on this singular antelope,
but I have been fortunate enough to find a willing helper in Mr. J.
Cockburn, who, always ready to assist in the study to which he has
devoted himself, has given me the following notes, which I have given
in the following notice, as they stand under the heading DESCRIPTION.

_GENUS BUDORCAS_.

A heavily-built, somewhat cow-shaped animal, with curiously bent
horns, which spring upwards, but soon bend laterally outward and then
upwards and backwards with angular curves; a front view resembles
a trident with the centre prong removed. The chevron is highly arched,
and the false hoofs are very large.

NO. 455. BUDORCAS TAXICOLOR.
_The Takin_.

NATIVE NAMES.--_Takin_ or _Takhon_, pronounced nasally.

HABITAT.--The Mishmi hills, Assam, Thibet.

[Illustration: _Budorcas taxicolor_.]

DESCRIPTION.--"The takin is a large, heavily-built ruminant, about
3 feet 6 inches high at the shoulder and 6 feet in total length. The
external peculiarities of the animal are: first, peculiar angularly
curved horns in both sexes; second, the enormously arched chevron;
third, the very great development of the spurious hoofs, which are
obtusely conical, and about 1-1/2 inches in length in a small
specimen.

"The colour of the adult in one stage is fulvous throughout, some
of the hairs being dark tipped. Legs, tail, muzzle and dorsal stripe
black.

"Old bulls appear to become of an uniform brownish-black at times,
but the colour doubtless depends on the season, as each hair has the
basal two-thirds yellow, and its apical third black, and the young
its hair brown with a dark tint. The takin, pronounced takhon
(nasally), is found just outside British limits in the Mishmi and
Akha hills, north of Assam. It extends into the mountainous parts
of Chinese Thibet, whence it has lately been procured by the
adventurous Abbe David, and has been described by the great French
naturalist A. Milne-Edwards, in his work 'Recherches sur les
Mammiferes,' with some osteological details which were hitherto
wanting, but no more than the limb bones appear to have been obtained.

"The horns of the takin have been considered to bear some likeness
to those of the gnu (_Catoblepas_), but I fail to trace a resemblance.
Hodgson's description of the horns is as follows:--

"'The horns of the takin are inserted on the highest part of the
forehead. The horns are nearly in contact at their bas