147 



" I did so several times making the number 60 and 65, and, on 

 " the other side of the same mountain on the same day, I counted a 

 " herd of 35 ; there was not a single adult buck amongst them." He 

 also replied as follows, to some remarks of mine about ibex some- 

 times entering the belts of forest or large coverts below the hills. 

 " Jerdon says that they will now and then take shelter in woods, 

 and he is right. A wounded buck will take shelter in a wood and 

 remain hid there. I have known them to do this on several 

 occasions. Once I found and bagged a large buck that I had 

 wounded and seen enter a good-sized sholah,* the evening before. 

 He was driven out by dogs and stood at bay in the wood for some 

 time before he would break cover. On another occasion, among the 

 high ranges of the Acnamullays, I came upon four or five bucks, 

 fired and slightly wounded one ; they were lying on some rocks 

 above a large forest, perhaps 200 yards from the edge, with a 

 steep grassy slope leading down to it. At the shot, they all, much 

 to my astonishment, went full gallop down into the wood, exactly 

 as samber do. I sat down and watched, feeling sure that they 

 would not remain there ; after waiting a considerable time, I saw 

 them all steal out for another part of the wood. I think that they 

 will travel through forest in going from one of their rocky feeding 

 grounds to another, but I don't think they ever live in forests. I 

 have found them in low scrub on the rocky sides of large woods." 



I must wind up my notes on the Neilgherry ibex ; for I cannot 

 avoid calling it by the name always applied to it by the sportsman 

 of Southern India, although I know that the term is not a scienti- 

 fically correct one, by extracting from the South of India Observer 

 of the 3rd and 17th September 1868, the following excellent des- 

 cription from the pen of my friend Hawk eye. I can vouch that 

 his illustrations of the habits and social customs of all the animals 

 he writes about are carefully and most correctly taken from nature 

 and from personal observation. I feel sure that any one who has 

 been among the glorious mountain scenery of which he writes, so 

 fondly and so well, would agree with me in this point. But let 

 him speak for himself : 



* Vide page 32 of these notes, VAGRANT, 



