THE MARKHOR 23 



Many stand as much as eleven hands high, whereas the 

 largest I have seen in other localities barely reached ten 

 and a half hands." Jerdon and Sterndale agree in fixing 

 the height at eleven and a half hands. Ward thus con- 

 tinues : " The curves of the horns are bold and flat, the 

 divergency at the tips great, and the massiveness, which is 

 shown to such advantage in the single twist, leads this 

 variety to be considered by most people the handsomest 

 of the four." Single horns of sixty-one and sixty-three 

 inches have been found in Astor, but complete trophies 

 range from fifty-two inches and less ; the length, girth, 

 and divergency of different sets of horns vary considerably. 

 It may be laid down as a general rule that the longest are 

 always the most slender, while the shortest are the most 

 massive, and have the greatest divergency. This will be 

 found to be the case with most horned animals. I have 

 noticed it constantly among antelope, gazelles, and ibex. 

 It would seem that nature had fixed a certain quantiUj of 

 bony and horny matter for the head ornaments of each 

 male, which, according to individual circumstances, is de- 

 veloped into long and slender, or short and massive, horns. 

 Length and massiveness will rarely be found together. 

 The best specimen measured by Ward gave the following 

 dimensions (page 15): "Length along curve, 52 inches; 

 girth at base, 12^ ; divergency at tips, 43 inches. Trophies 

 of this kind," he continues, " are rare, . . . rare indeed is 

 a head with horns much over 50 inches in length." He 

 speaks truly. The best trophies fall to the goatherd's 

 rickety matchlock, or the surer onslaught of the mountain 

 leopard, which are the ever-present enemies of the 

 markhor and ibex. The keen-eyed goatherd, not many 

 degrees less wild than his quarry, always takes his match- 

 lock when his flocks mount to the grassy uplands for their 

 summer pasturage. In a few days he has marked down 



