444 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
out to feed inthe mornings and evenings. No animal’s pursuit leads the 
sportsman over such dangerous ground as that of the markhor. Living 
so much in the forest, it must be followed over steep inclines of short 
grass, which the melting snow has left with all the blades flattened 
downwards ; and amid pine-trees, whose needle-like spines strew the 
ground and render it more slippery and treacherous than ice. If one 
falls on such ground, one instantly begins to slide down the incline with 
rapidly increasing velocity, and, unless some friendly bush or stone 
arrests one’s progress, the chances are that one is carried over some 
precipice, and either killed or severely injured. Many hair-breadth 
escapes occur, and the only wonder is that fatal accidents so seldom 
happen. 
‘“‘ Karly in the season the males and females may be found together 
on the open grassy patches and clear slopes among the forest, but 
during the summer the females generally betake themselves to the 
highest rocky ridges above the forest, while the males conceal them- 
selves still more constantly in the jungle, very rarely showing themselves. 
They are always very wary, and require great care in stalking them.” 
No. 447. CAPRA SIBIRICA. 
The Himalayan Ibex (Jerdon’s No. 235). 
NativE Names.—Sakin, Iskin, or Skeen of the Himalayas; Buz, 
in the upper part of the Sutlej; Xa/e, Kashmiri; Zangro/, in Kulu; 
Skin, the male, Z’Damuo the female, in Ladakh. 
HAsirat, — Throughout the Himalayas from Kashmir to Nepal. 
The localities given by Kinloch are Kunawar, Kulu, Lahoul, Spiti, 
Kashmir, Baltistan, and various parts of Thibet ; also Ladakh according 
to Horsfield. 
DeEscCRIPTION.—General colour light brownish, with a dark stripe 
down the back in summer, dirty yellowish-white in winter; the beard, 
which is about six to eight inches long, is black ; the horns, which are 
like those of the European ibex, are long and scimitar-shaped, curving 
over the neck, flattened at the sides, and strongly ridged in front; from 
forty to fifty inches in length. A pair is recorded in the ‘ Proceedings 
of the Zoological Society’ for 1840 of fifty-one inches in length. The 
females have thin slightly curved horns about a foot long. 
Under the hair, which is about two inches long, is a soft down, and 
is highly prized for the fine soft cloth called ‘sz. 
SizE.—Height at shoulder, about 44 inches. 
According to Colonel Markham the ibex “ frequents the highest 
ground near the snows where food is to be obtained. The sexes live 
