MOUNTAIN GAME OF THE CAUCASUS 53 



drive up to the mountain pastures every morning many old 

 he-goats which it would be hard to distinguish from those so 

 well set up at Kensington, or those others which I saw wild in 

 the mountains about the Christmas of 1878. 



Hircus cegagnts is somewhat smaller in size and lighter in 

 build than either C. caucasica or C. pallasi. He is a rich creamy 

 brown in colour, with a dark stripe along the spine and what a 

 saddler would call a ' breast-plate ' of the same colour, and dark 

 knees and dark markings on the legs. The beast described 

 and figured as Capra tzgagrus by Mr. Sclater in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society for May 1886 seems to me to repre- 

 sent the animal in question. 



There are three ways at least in which the mountain game 

 of the Caucasus may be hunted. First, there is the royal 

 method practised by the Prince of Mingrelia, who was good 

 enough to invite me to participate in a mountain drive with 

 him in 1887. This gentleman owns a large tract of country 

 between Kutais and Svanetia, in which tur and chamois are 

 preserved. Once a year the Prince and his friends assemble 

 their retainers, of whom every Caucasian chieftain keeps and 

 feeds a vast number ; and, having stationed the guns in the 

 passes and runways of the mountains, the beaters drive the tur 

 and chamois past the guns. On one occasion I am informed 

 that a bag of forty tur was thus made in one day's driving. To 

 those who prefer grouse driving to walking up the wild old 

 birds later on in the season, this may be fine sport. For my own 

 part I don't consider it so. But it is a mere matter of opinion. 

 Then there is a second method which appeals strongly to 

 those who care to watch Nature and her wild things closely, 

 when they are most off their guard. This is the shepherd's 

 way. Wherever there are tur, there are what the natives call 

 springs of bitter water, in some cases mere yellow licks on 

 almost inaccessible crags, in others big springs of water very 

 strongly impregnated with iron. The natives are extremely 

 fond of this water, believing that it cures all ailments and en- 

 dows a man with every physical virtue, and the mountain goats 



