THE SURROW. 207 



flanks and fore-quarters reddish-brown, creamy-white from 

 above the knees and hocks downwards ; horns black, round, 

 slightly curved, sharply pointed, sloping well backward, and 

 roughly annulated for two-thirds of their length, which is 

 ordinarily about 9 or 10 inches, with a circumference at the 

 base of 5 or 6 inches ; ears about 8 inches long ; distinct but 

 not very large eyepits, from which, I remember in one at any 

 rate of the specimens I shot, a whitish - looking discharge 

 rather freely exuded. The surrow is pretty generally, though 

 sparsely, distributed over the whole length of the Himalayan 

 ranges, and from the higher to the outer ones. Its favourite 

 haunts are the wildest of craggy, precipitous, wooded gorges 

 where dense " ringal " (a kind of long, thin, reed-like bamboo) 

 jungle abounds, in the deep gloomy recesses of which it 

 usually lies up during the day, seldom venturing abroad 

 except in the very early morning and late in the evening to 

 feed, and then usually only a short distance from its seques- 

 tered retreat. For it is of very shy habit, although its dis- 

 position is so bold that it is always ready to show fight when 

 wounded, or even in defence of its wounded mate, with which, 

 as well as with their offspring, sometimes it is found in company, 

 though generally a solitary animal. Of its courage the fol- 

 lowing I know to be an authentic instance. A female surrow 

 had been shot by a sportsman, when, on his native follower 

 approaching to secure it, a male companion rushed out from 

 the dense cover hard by, and going for the man, sent him 

 rolling down-hill with a butt from its horns, making good its 

 retreat ere the astonished shooter had time to remonstrate 

 with his rifle. The doe is very similar in size and appear- 

 ance to the buck, with horns of almost the same length and 

 thickness. Its cry of alarm resembles a kind of sharp shriek, 

 which, like the gooral, it emits at short and regular intervals. 

 When suddenly surprised it sometimes shows a strange 

 amount of stupidity. I have known it stand stock-still at 

 gaze, even after being shot at, if missed. But once started it 



