Arabian Tahr 301 



had to be destroyed. It is to this pernicious habit that the British Museum 

 owes the two handsome specimens now exhibited in the lower mammalian 

 gallery. 



2. The Siwalik Tahr — Hemitragus sivalensis [Extinct) 



Capra sivale/isis^ Lydekker, Palc^ontologia Iiuiica [Mem. Geol. Siirv. luJ.)., 

 ser. 10, vol. i. p. 169 (1878), Cat. Foss. Manini. Brit. Mi/s. pt. ii. p. 45 

 (1885). 



Heinitragi/s siva/ciisis, Blantord, Fauna Brit. Ltd. — Manun. p. 509 (1891). 



Characters. — Apparently very closely allied to the existing Himalayan 

 species, of which it may be merely the ancestral race. It is known by 

 two imperfect skulls with the horn-cores in the British Museum. 



Distribution. — Northern India during the Pliocene epoch. 



3. The Arabian Tahr- — Hemitragus javakeri 



Hemitragus jayakeri, Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. xiii. 

 p. 365 (1894), Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 452, pi. xxxi. 



Hemitragus jaykeri. Ward, Records of Big Game, p. 234 (1896). 



Characters. — Size small, the height at the shoulder being only about 

 24^ inches ; build comparatively light and slender. Pelage coarse, shaggy, 

 and brittle, the texture of the hairs being much more like that ot some of 

 the larger species of sheep, or even the musk-deer, than that ot the 

 Himalayan thar ; on the greater part of the body the hair of medium 

 length, shorter than in the Himalayan, but longer than in the Nilgiri 

 species ; on the nape of the neck and the middle line of the fore part of 

 the back elongated into a mane, and the hair below the angles of the lower 

 jaw, as well as that on the upper part of the fore- and hind-legs likewise 

 long, so that more or less distinct tufts are formed at the knees and hocks. 

 General colour pale sandy or whitish-brown, the mane on the back being 



