Game Animals of India, etc. 



shoulder -height apparently not exceeding about i,^ 

 inches ; but specimens are needed in order to test this 

 statement. The habitat of the straight-horned markhor 

 includes the Trans- Indus hill-ranges of the Punjab 

 frontier, too-ether with those of south and eastern 

 Afghanistan and Baluchistan. In the Suleman rang^e 

 this markhor is found as far south as the neighbour- 

 hood of Mithankot, and it also occurs in the Quetta 

 district, where, however, the horns are stated to show 

 a tendency towards the assumption of a less compact 

 spiral. The longest horn on record is a single one 

 picked up on the Suleman range, of which the length 

 is 48:^ inches. Next to this is a pair in the British 

 Museum from Afghanistan, measuring 39!^ inches, 

 while the third in point of size is the head shown in 

 fig. 22, in which the horns are 39^ inches in length. 



The hill -ranges frequented by this race of the 

 markhor are comparatively barren and bare, and in 

 summer subject to a heat equalled in few parts of 

 India. Consequently the habits of the animal must be 

 different from those of its forest-dwelling relative on the 

 snow-clad scarps of the Pir Panjal ; but the life-history 

 of this goat still remains to be told, and all that can 

 be said at present is that, compared with the Astor 

 race, the Suleman markhor is the counterpart, so far as 

 habitat is concerned, of the urial of the Salt Range, as 

 contrasted with the urin or shapo ot Astor and Ladak. 



Mr. Hume observes that " the horns of females, 

 though smaller and slenderer, are of the same general 

 character as those of males, but differ in two note- 

 worthy points. First, the back or main ridge seems 

 more rounded and never so sharply pinched-up as in 

 the male. Second, the secondary ridge, which never, 

 I believe, shows itself in the male lower than the end 

 of the first half-turn of the horn, in the female runs 

 right down on to the frontal point, and is there as 

 prominent as the main ridge behind. In this respect 

 female horns are half-way between those of the males 



132 



