8 3 8 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



of vegetation, and descending great distances to feed in the mornings and evenings. 

 The best time to shoot ibex is when the young grass is just beginning to sprout 



along the margin of the snow 

 in May and June; after the 

 hardships and frequent long 

 fasts of winter they feed 

 greedily on the fresh, young 

 shoots, and in secluded spots 

 may be found lying down on 

 the grassy slopes during the 

 day." 



The same writer pro- 

 ceeds to observe that, al- 

 though excessively wary, the 

 Himalayan ibex, on account 

 of the broken nature of the 

 ground it frequents, is not 

 very difficult to approach 

 within shooting distance. 

 From our own personal ob- 

 servation and the accounts of 

 the natives of the secluded 

 valleys around Kashmir, we 

 are inclined to believe that 

 the Himalayan ibex is in the 

 habit of descending to lower 

 levels than is admitted by 

 General Kin loch; and we 

 have been told that in the 

 valleys of Ward wan and Tibet 

 numbers are killed at this 

 season in the snow quite close 

 to the villages. On one oc- 

 - casion, during the summer, 

 we observed a small flock of 



ARABIAN IBEX. ibex dr i yen d own f rom foe 



heights by a sudden snowstorm to the. level of the highroad between Kashmir and 

 Ladakh, in the valley of the Indus. In 1854 Colonel Markham wrote that in 

 Kashmir, ibex might be seen in flocks of a hundred or more, but nothing like these 

 numbers are found at the present day; and, in spite of the statement of General 

 Macintyre, it appears to us that in the immediate neighborhood of Kashmir this 

 magnificent animal is becoming rapidly scarcer. 



The bucks descend from the higher crags to join the does about October, the 

 pairing season taking place during the winter; and the young are born in May and 

 June, or about a month earlier than is the case with the Alpine species. To the 



