18 CATALOGUE OF THE HUME BEQUEST 



municated the following note:* "The horns of this form, 

 hitherto never seen on the entire skull, but usually on the 

 frontal bone only, are brought down occasionally to Peshawar 

 from Cabul, and again find their way sometimes into the 

 Srinagar bazaar. They come from the west and from a long 

 way off, and that is all that can usually be learned about 

 them. They belong to the cork-screw group, but differ from 

 those of the two preceding races in being much slenderer, 

 and also in the greater number of turns put in by their main 

 ridge in any given length of horn measured straight from 

 base to tip. In this respect they are to the Pir Panjal and 

 Astor races what the Suleman Eange ones are to those of the 

 Cabul Mountains. The horns make a regular V, broader or 

 narrower, but the tip-to-tip measurement never, I believe, 

 exceeds the length straight, and usually, I think, falls at 

 least one-sixth short of this. The Cabuli from whom the 

 specimen was purchased said that he believed they came 

 from Hazara ; at the time I thought that he meant British 

 Hazara, but I now believe he meant Afghan Hazara. I have 

 often thought that perhaps they come from Kafiristan, and 

 that they form a connecting link between the Pir Panjal and 

 Cabul races." 



On the other hand, the intermediate character of the 

 horns is suggestive of the Gilgit district. 



D. Cabul Markhor. 

 Capra falconer! megaeeros. 



Capra megaeeros, Hutton, Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist. vol. ii, p. 535, 



1842. 

 Capra falconer! megaeeros, Lydekker, Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats, 



p. 293, 1898, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1902, p. 323, pi. xxvii, Game 



Animals of India, etc. p. 127, 1907 ; Ward, Records of Big Game, 



ed. 6, p. 367, 1910. 



The markhor inhabiting the mountain ranges of northern 

 Afghanistan forms another stage in the gradation from the 

 Astor to the Suleman race, its horns being intermediate 

 between those of the latter and those of the Pir Panjal race, 

 In full-grown bucks, although nearly straight, they form a 



* See Lydekker, Game Animals of India, etc. p. 126. 



