SOME TIBETAN ANIMALS. 



433 



honsts are inferior to the wild yak, Avhich stands nearly 6 feet at the 

 slioulder. These niagniiicent animals are absohitely confined to the 

 arid central phiteau, on some parts of which, hitherto closed to Euro- 

 peans, they are said to be comparatively numerous. 



Another native of the same bare plateau is the Tibetan argali, or 

 wild sheep (Ovis amnion hodgsoni)^ a magnificent animal, with horns 

 of wonderfully massive j)roportions in the old rams. Since, however, 

 this species is only a local variety of the true argali of central Asia 

 generally, it is of less interest than the types exclusively confined to 

 the country. The same may be said of the shapoo, or Tibetan urial 

 {Ovis vignei), which is the typi- 

 cal race of a smaller race of wild 

 sheep, whose range extends in 

 one direction into northwestern 

 India and in another into Persia. 

 A third species of Avild sheep, 

 the bharal, or blue sheep {Ovis 

 nahura)^ readily distinguished 

 by its smooth and peculiarly 

 curved horns and close gray- 

 blue coat with black points, is, 

 however, absolutely characteris- 

 tic of the arid Tibetan plateau, 

 on which it is found in large 

 flocks. On the other hand, the 

 Asiatic ibex (Capra sibirica), 

 which frequents the more craggy 

 ground instead of the rolling up- 

 lands, is a species Avith a very 

 Avide distribution in central Asia. 



Although the yak and the 

 bharal maA^ be regarded as rep- 

 senting by themseh^es distinct 

 subgeneric types, all the hoUoAv- 

 horned ruminants hitherto men- 

 tioned are members of Avidely spread genera. We noAV come, hoAv- 

 cA-er, to a remarkable species, which is the sole representative of a 

 genus quite apart from any other and absolutely restricted to the arid 

 central plateau. This is the graceful chiru, or Tibetan antelope 

 {Pantholops hogsoni), of Avhich the bucks are armed Avith long, 

 slender, and heavily ridged horns of an altogether peculiar type 

 (fig. 4), Avhile the does are hornless. Possibly this handsome ante- 

 lope may be the original of the mythical unicorn, a solitary buck, 

 AVlien seen in profile, looking exactly as if it had but a single 

 SM 1904 28 



Fig. 4.— Head of male chiru. 



