634 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



constant and must only be taken as the more usual form of the 

 horns of the particular local race after which they are named; for 

 museum workers still fail to realize that naming new races of un- 

 gulates on the strength of differences in horn of one or two specimens, 

 is a very unsound proceeding" (Stockley, 1936, p. 140) . 



Lydekker (1898c, p. 295) gives the distribution of jerdoni as "the 

 Trans-Indus hill-ranges of the Punjab frontier, Afghanistan, and 

 Baluchistan, extending in the Suleman range as far south as the 

 neighbourhood of Mithankot, and also found in the Quetta district." 

 He quotes Colonel Percy to the effect that it "is found all over the 

 low ranges that run parallel to the right bank of the Indus below 

 Attock; it used to be found in fair numbers near Sheik Budin, a 

 small station near Dera Ismail Khan, and in the hills, or rather the 

 steep ravines, in the plateau behind Dera Ghazi Khan." 



"South of the Gomal River we have a few markhor of the pure 

 Suleiman type .... But generally speaking the markhor found to 

 the southward throughout the mountain ranges of Baluchistan, as 

 far as Quetta, are curiously enough of two mixed types one 

 resembling the Astor . . . , and the other the Pir Panjal." (Burrard, 

 1925?, pp. 176-177.) 



"The Government of Baluchistan issue cartridges at the rate of 

 30-50 a month to the posts of the Zhob Militia in order that the men 

 may shoot markhor and oorial for meat. I was commanding at Fort 

 Sandeman in '29 and '30 and saw every post had its walls lined 

 with heads of small markhor and oorial while 3 trips I made to 

 various ranges of hills showed not a single adult male. I heard 

 in May last from an officer just returned from the Zhob Militia that 

 the same system still persists. ... It would appear that the saving 

 effected by not providing the men of the Zhob Militia with a meat 

 ration is more important than the survival of the animal life of the 

 country." (C. H. Stockley, in litt., September 16, 1933.) 



Stockley also contributes (1936, pp. 145-147) the following infor- 

 mation : 



Bucks from the Takht-i-Suliman of Baluchistan, which massif is over 11,000 

 feet in height and is well-wooded, are bigger and heavier in coat than those 

 from Sheikh Budin and the Isa Khel Hills, which live at under 6,000 feet. . . . 



Although the markhor of Kashmir has some sort of protection, his un- 

 fortunate relation of the Frontier hills is persecuted by all and sundry at 

 all times of the year, while the local inhabitants are well-armed, and the peace 

 which has lately invested that country has only given the tribesmen more 

 leisure to hunt. Small wonder that the markhor have decreased almost to 

 vanishing point and are likely to decrease still further unless measures are 

 adopted for their protection. Such measures are difficult to enforce in country 

 where my last four trips have had to be carried out with an escort of forty 

 rifles, but at least the authorities might make some effort in places immediately 

 under their control, instead of encouraging the local soldiery to shoot markhor 

 and oorial for meat in lieu of meat rations, using government ammunition 

 to do it. 



