508 BOYID^!. 



Suleman markhor were 36 inches in length straight and 49 round 

 the curve (beginning behind), girth at base 1O5 ; the main ridge 

 made 83 turns. This race is said to be considerably smaller than 

 that of the Pir Panjal and to have a less developed beard. In the 

 extreme south, however, near Quetta, the horns again assume an 

 open spiral. 



The accompanying figures (pp. 506, 507) show the variation in the 

 horns, but it must not be forgotten that intermediate varieties occur. 

 It is true that heads from one locality are, as a rule, similar to each 

 other, but when a series from various places is examined it appears 

 to me impossible to draw a line between the different types. 



Habits. These vary with the character of the ground. Kinloch 

 says : " Unlike ibex, which keeps to the rugged crags and steep 

 ravines above the limit of the forest, the markhor delights in rocky 

 forests, and although it occasionally comes out into the open glades, 

 it seeks concealment as much as possible." Like other goats it 

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

 Afghanistan, where forest is, as a rule, wanting, the markhor is found 

 in stony ravines and on steep hill-sides, and is found in some places 

 at a low elevation. "Wherever it inhabits high ranges it is usually 

 driven to the valleys when heavy snowfalls, and Col. Biddulph, who 

 has noticed that the sensitiveness to cold shown by this goat is due 

 to its wanting the woolly underfur or pashm, so greatly developed 

 in Capra sibirica, tells me that he once found and captured an adult 

 male markhor, driven down by snow, in his garden at Gilgit. 



The markhor is in appearance by far the grandest of all wild 

 goats, and although it attains a considerable weight, no species 

 excels it in agility and skill in climbing difficult and dangerous 

 ground. Hutton, who had both this species and C. ceycigrus in cap- 

 tivity, gave the palm to the markhor for agility, and Mr. H. Little- 

 dale, after hunting markhor, remarked on the heavier build of the 

 ibex which he met with in Astor. 



The young, one or two in number, are produced about May and 

 June in Astor and Gilgit. M arkhor have repeatedly bred in con- 

 finement with domestic goats, and it was at one time supposed 

 that the tame races with spiral horns were derived from C.falconeri. 

 It is not improbable that some are thus descended. But the spiral 

 in tame goats is almost always in the reverse direction to that 

 found in markhor, the anterior ridge in the tame animals turning 

 inwards at first in each horn. I have, however, seen exceptions ; 

 there is one from Nepal in the British Museum. 



Genus HEMITRAGUS, Hodgson (1841). 



A small muffle. Mammae 4 or 2. No suborbital, inguinal, nor 

 interdigital glands. No beard. Males odorous. 



Skull long and narrow, orbits scarcely projecting. Occipital 

 plane flat, meeting the frontal at a right angle or rather less. 

 Horns close together at the base, small (rarely exceeding 15 or 16 

 inches), not very much larger in males than in females, commencing 



