THE NILGIRI IBEX 



On the next day, we moved our camp to 

 Bhowany, from which, both the hill on which we 

 had seen the ibex, and the one from which we 

 had viewed them, were easily accessible. 



It was not until the ninth day after we began 

 shooting that I fired my first shot at ibex, though 

 I had, in the meantime, bagged three stags. 



On that morning (April I3th) I went to the hill 

 on which we had seen the ibex on the seventh 

 idem, and I disturbed first a herd, and then four 

 fine bucks which were together on our side of the 

 hill, without getting a shot, and all the animals had 

 gone towards the precipice, which lay on the 

 further face where we had previously seen them 

 from across the Bhowany valley, as above related. 

 I found them in the rocks just below the brow, 

 and fired a hasty shot at one as it bolted. The 

 shikarrie went down to see the result of this shot, 

 which he reported a miss ; while I went a little 

 further along the hillside, and there, far down 

 below almost at the bottom, as it seemed when 

 viewed from above, and on a little plateau stood 

 an ibex, broadside on. 



I examined it through the telescope, and its 

 horns swept back so far that I decided that it was 

 a buck, but at first I would not fire at it, since the 

 distance appeared an impossible one. Two or 

 three times I aimed at it, and still the animal stood. 

 At last I determined to attempt the shot, and did 

 so, allowing a little for a high wind which was 

 blowing across the precipitous hill face. At the 

 report, the ibex fell, rolling over and over, but 



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