236 



The Living Animals of the World 



of the horns. The horns, which are 

 black, spring in a high backward 

 arch, but the creature has no beard. 

 A buck stands sometimes as much a& 

 38 inches high at the shoulder. It 

 has a long, rough coat, mainly dark 

 stone-colour in tint. 



Tahr live in the forest districts- 

 of the Middle Himalaya, where they 

 are found on very high and difficult 

 ground. General Donald Macintyre 

 shot one standing on the brink of 

 an almost sheer precipice. Down this 

 it fell, and the distance in sheer 

 depth was such that it was difficult 

 to see the body even with glasses. 

 The tahr is fairly common all along 

 the higher Himalayan Kange. Its- 

 bones are believed to be a sovereign 

 cure for rheumatism, and are exported 



to India for that object. A smaller kind is found in the mountains of Eastern Arabia, where 



very few English sportsmen have yet cared to attempt to shoot them. 



by permission oj P. ThomiUf, MJ. 



NUBIAN GOAT. 



These goats come from Nubia and Upper Egypt. They are generally hornless 

 and short-haired ; the colour varies, being sometimes black, and sometimes tan and 

 spotted. 



THE NILGIRI TAHR, OR NILGIRI IBEX. 



Though not an ibex, the sportsmen of India early gave this name to the tahr of the 

 Nilgiri and Anamalai Hills. The Himalayan species is covered with long, shaggy hair ; the 

 South Indian has short, smooth brown hair. 



"The ibex," says Hawkeye, the Indian sportsman, of this animal, "is massively formed, 

 with short legs, remarkably strong fetlocks, and a heavy carcase, short and well ribbed up, 

 combining strength and agility wonderful to behold. Its habits are gregarious, and the does 

 are seldom met with separate from the flock or herd, though males often are. The latter 

 assume, as they grow old, a distinctive appearance. The hair on the back becomes lighter, 

 almost white in some cases, causing a kind of saddle to appear; and from that time they 

 become known to the shikaries as the saddle-backs of the herd, an object of ambition to 

 the eyes of the true sportsman. It is a pleasant sight to watch a herd of ibex feeding 

 undisturbed, the kids frisking here and there on pinnacles or ledges of rock and beetling 

 cliffs where there seems scarcely safe hold for anything much larger than a grasshopper, the 

 old mother looking calmly on. Then again, see the caution observed in taking up their 

 resting- or abiding-places for the day, where they may be warmed by the sun, listening to 

 the war of many waters, chewing the cud of contentment, and giving themselves up to the 

 full enjoyment of their nomadic life and its romantic haunts. Usually, before reposing, one 

 of their number, generally an old doe, may be observed gazing intently below, apparently 

 scanning every spot in the range of her vision, sometimes for half an hour or more, 

 before she is satisfied that all is well, but, strange to say, seldom or never looking up to- 

 the rocks above. Then, being satisfied on the one side, she follows the same process on the 

 other, and eventually lies down calmly, contented with the precautions she has taken. 

 Should the sentinel be joined by another, or her kid come and lie by her, they always lie 

 back to back, in such a manner as to keep a good look-out to either side. A solitary 

 male goes through all this by himself, and wonderfully careful he is ; but when with 

 the herd he reposes in security, leaving it to the female to take precautions for their 

 joint safety." 



