THE MARKHOR 



(Capra falconeri) 



ALTHOUGH belonging to the prosaic group of Goats, the Markhor is 

 one of the finest of game animals, with " the tumbling cataract of his 

 beard " and the grand free sweep of his great spiral horns. He is 

 also a good-sized animal, standing over a yard at the shoulder, and 

 sturdily built. 



The horns vary much in development according to locality, there 

 being a great difference between the wide-spreading corkscrew type, 

 which is most admired, and the straight horns with a tightly- twisted 

 screw-like spiral, which are accompanied by smaller size and inferior 

 development of beard, while intermediate forms exist connecting the 

 two extremes. 



Horns of the open spiral type will measure four feet or more 

 along the curves, though in a straight line they may not be much 

 more than a yard, which is about the length of the straight close- 

 spiral form. In the female the horns are quite short and insignificant, 

 though they show the characteristic twist. 



The Markhor wears his long beard both summer and winter, but 

 changes the rest of his coat to some extent, the summer dress being 

 short and whitish, while in winter it is long and grey ; he has, how- 

 ever, no under-garment of wool like some other Wild Goats, and hence 

 is rather more sensitive to cold than these. The female is brown in 

 summer, and never has any beard ; while the kids are light drab, with 

 a black stripe down the back. 



This noble Wild Goat is found in the mountain ranges of the 

 Indian North-West, the Pir Panjl to the south of Kashmir, and the 

 Baltistan, Astor, and Gilgit ranges to the north, as well as in many 

 of the Afghanistan hills, including the Sulaiman range, where the 

 poorest specimens, of comparatively small size, with straight screw 

 horns, are found, the splendid open-spiralled specimens attaining their 

 fullest development in the Astor and Baltistan ranges. 



n. 



