ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 629 



Blanford writes (1891, p. 508) of the species as a whole: "It 

 generally occurs in herds, and keeps much to steep rocky cliffs. 

 . . . Wherever it inhabits high ranges it is usually driven to the 

 valleys when heavy snow falls .... The markhor is in appear- 

 ance by far the grandest of all wild goats, and ... no species excels 

 it in agility and skill in climbing difficult and dangerous ground." 



Arbuthnot says (in Burrard, 1925?, p. 181) : "In some nullahs in 

 Astor and Haramoosh they may be seen in large herds, but the old 

 veterans generally live apart." 



C. H. Stockley (in litt., May 29, 1933), without particularizing 

 subspecies, writes of "the rapid decrease of that very fine animal 

 the markhor. I fear they are likely to disappear entirely on the 

 N. W. Frontier and are terribly reduced in Kashmir." 



Stockley also remarks (1936, p. 142) on the confusing distribution 

 of the Astor and the Pir Pinjal types of horns: 



There is ... a curious difference in the majority of the heads from the 

 two areas [Baltistan and the country farther west]; those of the right bank 

 nullahs above Haramosh often looking just as if they came from the Kaj-i-Nag, 

 their close spiral contrasting with the very open curve of the Haramosh and 

 Astor heads, in which the first outward turn of the horns just above the skull, 

 is almost at right angles to the base of the horn, and the next rising turn almost 

 square again with the first. I have seen a head of 53 inches from the Turmik 

 nullah of the right bank which had a closer spiral than most heads from the 

 Kaj-i-Nag, while of over forty bucks which I saw in the Mushkin nullah 

 on the left bank every one was of the very open type. 



There is a further note by Stockley (1936, p. 144) on the present 

 subspecies: "The nullahs on the Astor river rarely produce a good 

 head nowadays, but it is well worth while doing the few extra 

 marches beyond Bunji and trying Jutyal, Khaltar, or the Haramosh 

 Nullah." 



The Game Warden of Kashmir (in litt., May, 1937) writes op- 

 timistically concerning the Astor and the Pir Panjal Markhors 

 together, stating that they are plentiful and show no decrease. The 

 shooting of a limited number of fixed horn length is permitted on a 

 shooting license. 



Pir Panjal Markhor 



CAPRA FALCONERI CASH MIRIEN sis Lydekker 



Capra jalconeri cashmiriensis Lydekker, Wild Oxen, Sheep, & Goats, p. 290, 

 1898. ("The Pir-Panjal and Kajnag ranges on the south side of the 

 valley of Kashmir, unknown on the northern side of that valley, and 

 not extending farther east than the Chinab; to the north-west in Hazara 

 and Gilgit"; type locality restricted by Lydekker (1913c, vol. 1, p. 164) 

 to "Pir Panjal Range.") 



FIGS.: Blanford, 1891, p. 506, fig. 165; Lydekker, 1898c, p. 292, fig. 56; Lydekker, 

 1900, pi. 4, fig. 4, and p. 114, fig. 17; Stebbing, 1912, p. 239, fig.; Lydekker, 

 1913c, vol. 1, p. 165, fig. 41; Jour. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. 36, no. 4, 

 suppl., pi. 14, 1933; Ward, 1935, p. 266, fig. 



