Gooral may occasionally be driven, but far the pleasantest and most sportsmanlike way of hunting them is to walk slowly along the top of a ridge, carefully examining every ravine and patch of likely ground. Where gooral are at all plentiful it is almost impossible to take too much pains. The beasts often lie down under overhanging boulders and turn up suddenly in the most unexpected fashion on ground where you thought you had examined every inch, and as surely as you become careless so surely will you hear a hiss and see a beast dash down the hill at whom you might have got an easy shot had you not relaxed your attention.
The comparative measurements of European chamois are given by Colonel Howard as follows:
Good bucks weigh from 45 lbs. to 60 lbs. broken up. Extraordinary ones reach 70 lbs. and over.
| Length of horn | Perpendicular measurement | Girth | Splay |
|---|---|---|---|
| ins. | ins. | ins. | ins. |
| 11¼ | 7¾ | 3½ | 6½ |
| 10⅜ | .. | 3½ | 4 |
These two heads are exceptionally fine; the two next heads are good, but not extraordinary.
| Length of horn | Perpendicular measurement | Girth | Splay |
|---|---|---|---|
| ins. | ins. | ins. | ins. |
| 9¼ | .. | 3¼ | 6¼ |
| 9¼ | 6½ | 3½ | 4 |
There are two more varieties of gooral in the British Museum: the long-tailed gooral from China, which is about the same size as an Indian gooral, but rather more yellow in colour. It has a tail of long brown hair reaching to its hocks, that of the one in the British Museum measuring 17 ins. to the tips of the hair. The Japanese gooral is a delightful beast, and exactly what one would expect from such a quaint country. Its coat is like that of a Langour monkey, long, soft, grey hair, tipped with brown; it has a white ruff on its throat and cheeks, a brown face, and rather rounded brown ears—altogether it looks like a goat-monkey. The horns are the same shape as those of the Indian gooral.
XLII. SEROW (Nemorhædus bubalinus)
Gurwhal, ‘Serow’; Sutlej Valley, ‘Imu’; Cashmere, ‘Ramoo,’ ‘Halj,’ ‘Salabhir’; Chamba, ‘Goa,’ ‘Jhangal’
The serow is a heavily built, awkward looking animal, intensely ugly, suggesting a cross between a donkey and a cow, with a wild-looking bristly black mane, large coarse ears, horns like those of a gooral, only bigger; its general colour is black on the back and head, the muzzle being dirty white; the sides, forearms and thighs are of bright red clay colour, the under parts and legs being white; when seen first, it looks all red and black, and its wild uncanny appearance accords well with the gloomy tangled precipitous ravines it frequents.