290 CAPRINE. 



so called, of the highlands of Madura, and of the neighbouring Pulney 

 hills, as I long ago heard of the Neelgherry Ibex having been killed near 

 Madura and Dindigul. 



The Rev. Mr. Baker, in sending a fine skull and horns from the 

 Western Ghats inland from Cochin, to Mr. Ely th, wrote as follows : "The 

 animal when alive was as large as an ordinary donkey, and so heavy that 

 six men could with difficulty bring him in. They are very numerous, 

 feeding like a flock of sheep on the hill-tops, and only flee to the precipices 

 when alarmed. They will even hide in jungle and grass. There is a solitary 

 Roman Catholic church on a rock in the jungles, on the borders of Tra- 

 vancore and Cochin, where the wild ' Ibex ' are common, and though 

 numbers of people go there on pilgrimage, these ' ibex ' walk about 

 among them, and eat the sesamum-seed given them, but do not allow 

 themselves to be touched. They are considered holy and belonging to the 

 3hurch." Elsewhere the same observer, writing of the game animals of 

 the Western Ghats, remarks that, "if the mountains are at all rocky 

 and precipitous, you will find the wild goat or Ibex close to the rocks, 

 often in large herds." As an article of provender, Mr. Baker remarks 

 that " a quarter of ibex hung, as the country people in the mountains 

 do at home, within a wire or muslin bag, and exposed to the air, is equal 

 to Welsh mutton." 



Baikie,in his work on the JSTeelgherries, stated that the Neelgherry Ibex 

 had very large knotted horns, and a long black or brown beard." Lieut. 

 Beagin also informed Mr. Blyththat the "Ibex"' of the Neelgherries had 

 a considerable beard; and on my first visit to the Neelgherries I was told by 

 more than one good sportsman that the male had a beard. Yet no speci- 

 men that I ever saw (though some were very old) had a vestige of a beard ; 

 and I imagine that the preconceived idea of the Ibex had involuntarily 

 deceived the observers into believing that those they saw had beards. 



There are no other species of this strictly Indian genus. 



Gen. CAPRA, Linnaeus. 



Char. Horns in both sexes, of moderate or large size, angular, flat in 

 front ; no muffle ; no eye-pits nor inguinal pits ; feet-pits in the fore-feet 

 only, or in none ; females with two mammse. 



The knees are callous ; both sexes are more or less bearded, and the 

 males are odorous. The muzzle is usually concave. Species of this genus 

 are chiefly Palsearctic, but they extend into the North of Africa, and two 



