Asiatic Ibex 



279 



Kashmir unknown in the Pir-Panjal, and, I beheve, the Kajnag ranges ; 

 in Central Asia, ranging as far east as Lake Baikal, and in the Himalaya at 

 least as far as the source of the Ganges. 



Habits. — For the last forty or fifty years the Himalayan race of this 

 handsome species has formed such a favourite object of pursuit to English 

 sportsmen that naturalists, from their writings, have become thoroughly 



V/^ 



'\ 



Fig. 53. — Front view of head of male Himalayan Ibex. (From Darrah's Sporl hi the 

 Highliinds of Kashmir.) 



acquainted with its life history. The usual result of such pursuit is, 

 however, making itself severely felt in the neighbourhood of the Kashmir 

 valley, even if not also in districts still more remote. And whereas Colonel 

 F. Markham, whose Shooting in the Hinialayas was published in the year 

 1854, speaks of herds of ibex numbering a hundred or more individuals, 

 very much smaller parties are now the rule. The thick coat of pashm, 

 or under-fur at the base of the longer hairs of the coat renders the kel, as 

 this ibex is called in Kashmiri, practically independent of cold, and there- 



