INDIAN SHOOTING 31.5 



The writer has consequently adhered to Colonel Kinloch's 

 theory, that there are four distinct varieties of this goat, classi- 

 fying the two spiral types under the name of Megaceros, and the 

 two straight-horned types under that vljerdoni. In the British 

 Museum the name Falconeri is applied to all four. 



The first variety of Capra megaceros is that found in Cash- 

 mere on the Fir Punjal and Kajnag ranges ; its horns make 

 occasionally three complete spirals, whereas the horns of the 

 second or Astor variety rarely have more than one ; and as the 

 horns are measured along the curve, it follows that a 4o-in. 

 horn from Astor is far bigger than one of the same length 

 from Cashmere. The Astor markhor is also a larger animal 

 than the Cashmere one, often measuring a couple of inches 

 higher at the shoulder. 



As regards habits, the Cashmere markhor is a thoroughly 

 forest-loving beast. He will come out to eat the young grass 

 on the upper slopes of the hill, but his real home is among 

 precipitous cliffs in the middle of forest, and well worth 

 watching those cliffs are when the sun first comes out after 

 heavy rain. If there are any markhor about, they are pretty 

 sure to appear and sun themselves. 



The Astor variety, on the contrary, live almost entirely in 

 the open, only taking to the strips of forest when driven there 

 by the gadflies in the summer. In the winter they come down 

 to the cliffs overhanging the main streams, working up about 

 May, till they join the ibex, who never seem to leave the 

 higher ground. In June both ibex and markhor may be seen 

 feeding together. The writer saw a combined flock of nearly 

 one hundred beasts, male and female, in the amphitheatre at 

 the head of the Dashkat or Datchnar valley. Stalk them ? Of 

 course we tried, in spite of the long odds against one with a 

 flock of that size. There was a ravine leading up towards them, 

 which we reached all right by crawling on hands and knees 

 through some thick low scrub ; then we crept up the ravine 

 till it died away into open ground and found ourselves planted 

 within three hundred yards of the head of the flock, some dozen 



