MOUFFLON-STALKING IN CYPRUS 373 



shot ; and for that the many weary days I had 

 passed in the quest must be my excuse. 



Old Anastasi was as excited as a schoolboy, and 

 hardly would give me time to reload before he dashed 

 off. I kept up with him somehow — at least he was 

 not more than a score of yards in front of me on 

 reaching the spot where the ram lay in a couloir. He 

 was soon put out of his misery, and then I had time 

 to examine my specimen. 



He was an old fellow — eight years old by the rings 

 on his horns, which, though broken and worn at the 

 points, were over three of my spans — that is, two feet 

 long. There was no trace of the brilliant colouring 

 I had noted in autumn on some of the rams. His 

 shoulders and foreparts were heavily marked with 

 black, which almost formed a cross just in front of 

 the saddle-mark, which was a creamy grey. The back 

 of the neck and the croup were an orange - brown. 

 The very Homan-nosed face was grey-white, with the 

 hair on it a good deal rubbed, as it was also on each 

 side of the withers, by the points of his horns. He 

 was about the size of an Epping Forest fallow-buck — 

 five feet long from nose to tail. 



The bullet had struck exactly where I had aimed, 

 high up on the shoulder, and carried a splinter of 

 bone out with it on the other side, making two holes 

 at the exit. This proved that there was no necessity 

 for making any allowance. It was fortunate that the 

 ram had been looking back, for the bullet went out 

 exactly where the mark showed the tip of the left 

 horn generally rested. 



Anastasi made a curious remark afterwards to the 

 effect that the ram would not have lived long anyhow, 

 and explained that these old rams die from their 



