The game animals of India, Burma, Malaya, and Tibet; being a new and revised edition of 'The great and small game of India, Burma, and Tibet,'
Richard Lydekker · 1907
This serow was described by Blyth under the name of Capricornis rubida, from a specimen obtained in the hill-ranges of Aracan, on the sea-board of Upper Burma.It was subsequently regarded by Dr. Blanford as inseparable from the ordinary Burmese serow (Nemorhedus sumatrensis), of which I suggested that it might be a local race.The new specimen, which is almost entirely of a foxy-red colour, with a little brownish on the backs of the ears, and becoming rather paler on the throat, was obtained by Mr. A. Sinclair Thomson, of the Essex Regiment, near Mogaung, nearly due north of Bhamo, on the eastern border of the Singpho country.The occurrence of the red serow in localities so distant as Aracan and Mogaung indicates that its range extends right across that of the ordinary serow, and suggests a colour-phase rather than a local race.Indeed, in view of recent observations as to the red phase of the African tiger-cat being merely the early stage of the dusky form of that species, the suspicion arises that a similar change may take place in the case of the serow.Accordingly, any observations bearing on this point from sportsmen in Burma will be of interest.R.. LYDEKKER.