THE TAHR AND THE NILGIRI GOAT 843 



Genus Hemitragus 



The Himalayan goat, known as the tahr (//". jemlaicus), together with an allied 

 species from Arabia, and a third from the Nilgiri hills of Southern India, differ so 

 markedly from the true goats that Mr. Blanford considers they should be placed in 

 a genus by themselves. All these goats are utterly devoid of a beard, and also dis- 

 tinguished by having the extremity of the muzzle naked. Their skulls are longer 

 and narrower than in the true goats, with the sockets of the eyes less prominent; 

 and the horns are relatively short, and but little smaller in the does than in the 

 bucks. In form the horns are compressed and angulated in front, with their bases 

 quite close together; and they curve backward from the plane of the forehead. 

 Neither of the species have glands in the fore-feet. 



T , The Himalayan tahr, which is represented in our illustration, is 



readily distinguished by the form of the black horns, which have their 

 lateral surfaces flattened and shelving regularly up to the sharp and beaded keel on 

 the inner front border; they diverge regularly from their bases, at the same time 

 curving sharply backward, with a slight inward inclination at the tips. On the 

 head the hair is short, but it becomes longer on the body, and in old bucks is so 

 lengthened on the neck, chest, and shoulders as to form a long shaggy mane reach- 

 ing below the knees. There is considerable individual variation in color, but the 

 general tint of the hair is dark or reddish brown; old males being generally very 

 dark, although pale colored individuals of both sexes are not unfrequently met with. 

 The face and the front of the limbs are very dark, in some instances almost black; 

 and old males have an indistinct dark line down the middle of the back. In young 

 animals the color is a uniform grayish brown; and the kids are reported to be very 

 pale colored. The female tahr differs from all other goats, as well as from sheep, in 

 having four teats. 



In height the male tahr varies from three feet to three feet four inches at the 

 shoulder, the does being much smaller. Good specimens of the horns vary from 

 twelve to fifteen inches in length, measured along the curve; but a pair has been re- 

 corded with a length of sixteen and one-half inches and a basal girth of ten and one- 

 half inches. In the does the length of the horns is seldom more than ten inches. 

 Distribution ^is goat * s ^ oun ^ throughout the higher forest regions of the Him- 

 alayas, from the Pir-Panjal range on the outer side of the valley of 

 Kashmir in the northwest, to Sikkim in the southeast, but is unknown in the arid 

 Tibetan districts of the interior. Tahr is the native name by which it is known in 

 the Western Himalayas, but in Kashmir it is termed kras, while in Nipal it goes by 

 the name of jharal. Quite recently a second smaller species, with only two teats, 

 has been discovered in Arabia; while a fossil tahr occurs in the rocks of the 

 Siwalik hills at the foot of the Himalayas. 



In spite of the small size of its horns, the tahr is decidedly a fine- 

 looking animal; and it is plentifully distributed over many parts of the 

 Himalayas. Although in the Pir-Panjal range tahr are often found on the same 



