504 



Horns scimitar-shaped, curved backwards, diverging, the points 

 sometimes converging slightly ; nearly triangular in section, the 

 anterior surface flat, with large knobs at tolerably regular intervals, 

 hinder edge compressed. In the female the horns are much 

 smaller, set wider apart, rugose, almost ringed, oval in section at 

 the base, compressed above, curving slightly backwards. 



Colour in summer brown, scarcely paler beneath, old males being 

 chocolate, with patches of dirty white on the back. In winter the 

 general colour is yellowish white, tinged with brown or greyish. 

 There is generally a dark band on the back. Legs dark. Beard 

 and tail dark brown. 



Dimensions. Height of males at shoulder about 40 inches ; females 

 one-third smaller (KinlocK). Basal length of a male skull 10-8 ; 

 orbital breadth 6. Good horns of males measure 40 to 45 inches 

 round the curve ; the greatest recorded length is 54 with a girth of 

 11*5 inches above the lowest knob. Female horns measure about 

 a foot in length. 



Varieties. A very dark-coloured ibex is said to occur in Baltistan, 

 but is, according to Scully, merely the old male in winter vesture. 

 Ibex from Siberia and from the Thian Shan Mountains north of 

 Kashgarh have the abdomen and the back of the carpus and tarsus 

 white, contrasting strongly with the front of the legs, which is very 

 dark brown. Colonel Biddulph, to whom I am indebted for calling 

 my attention to this character, is of opinion that the Thian Shan 

 animal is true C. sibirica and the Himalayan one distinct, in which 

 case the latter would take the name of C. sakin. I have only been 

 able to examine one undoubted Himalayan skin, and cannot say 

 if the difference is constant. 



Mr. E. A. Sterndale has described and figured (Jour. Bombay 

 N. H. Soc. i, p. 24) the head of an ibex purchased in Kashmir. 

 The horns are 52 inches long, dark coloured, and remarkably 

 curved round, much more than in ordinary C. sibirica ; there are no 

 knobs except near the tips. In section the horns resemble those of 

 C. sibirica. Three specimens are recorded, and it is suggested they 

 may come from the country west of Kashmir. Mr. Sterndale 

 proposed to call this wild goat C. dauvergnei if new. 



Distribution. The mountain ranges of Central Asia from the Altai 

 to the Himalayas, and from the neighbourhood of Herat to Kumaun. 

 The ibex occurs in most of the high ranges north of Kashmir, but 

 not in the Pir Panjal, and it also inhabits the higher Himalayas as 

 far east at all events as the source of the Ganges. It is not known 

 to occur farther east in the Himalayas nor in Eastern Tibet, and 

 although it is included in Hodgson's lists of Nepal mammals, there 

 are no specimens in his collection ; but when in Northern Sikhim, 

 I heard from Tibetans of an animal, probably this species, inha- 

 biting the mountains north of Shigatze, and Hodgson obtained 

 similar information as to its occurrence north of Lhassa and 

 Digarchi. 



Habits. The ibex of the Himalayas is found on and about pre- 

 cipitous cliffs at high elevations close to the snow at all seasons. 



