250 UNO ULA TES. 



Kashmir, we are inclined to believe that the Himalayan ibex is in the habit of 

 descending to lower levels than is admitted by General Kinloch ; and we have 

 been told that in the valleys of Wardwan and Tibet numbers are killed at this 

 season in the snow quite close to the villages. On one occasion, during the 

 summer, we observed a small flock of ibex driven down from the heights by a 

 sudden snowstorm to the level of the high-road between Kashmir and Ladak, in 

 the valley of the Indus. In 1854 Colonel Markham wrote that in Kashmir ibex 

 might be seen in flocks of a hundred or more, but nothing like these numbers are 

 found at the present day ; and, in spite of the statement of General Macintyre, it 

 appears to us that in the immediate neighbourhood of Kashmir this magnificent 

 animal is becoming rapidly scarcer. 



The bucks descend from the higher crags to join the does about October, the 

 pairing-season taking place during the winter ; and the young are born in May 

 and June, or about a month earlier than is the case with the Alpine species. To 

 the natives of Kashmir the ibex is know as the kel, while in Baltistan and Ladak 

 it is termed skin, or iskin. 



The third representative of the group is the Arabian or Sinaitic 

 ibex (C. sinaitica), locally known as the beden. This goat is found 

 in the Sinaitic Peninsula, in portions of Palestine, and in Upper Egypt ; it is common 

 in Arabia Petraea, but more rare in Palestine proper, and never appears to have 

 extended northwards of the Lebanon, where a few still remain. In Egypt its 

 southern limit is approximately marked by the tropic of Capricorn. This species 

 is distinguished from the Himalayan ibex by the horns being more compressed, 

 and having the knobs on the front surface arranged at less regular intervals. The 

 general colour of the fur is yellowish brown, with dark markings on the back, 

 chest, and front of the legs; the under-parts and the hinder-surface of the limbs 

 being whitish. In well -grown adult males the horns may attain a length 

 of 36 inches along the curve, and Sir E. G. Loder has a pair almost 39 inches in 

 length. The habits of the animal appear to be similar to those of the others. 



Abyssinian Lastly, there is the little-known Abyssinian ibex (C. walie), 



ibex. from Abyssinia, distinguished from the others by the curvature 

 of its horns, and the presence of a protuberance in the middle of the forehead. 



THE MARKHOR (C. falconeri). 



The Himalayan markhor (literally snake-eater), or spiral-horned goat, brings 

 us to the last representative of the genus Capra, and one distinguished from all 

 the others by its upwardly-directed and spirally-twisted horns, and also by the 

 extension of the beard on to the chest and shoulders. In the latter respect this 

 species reminds us of the arui among the sheep, although the markhor agrees with 

 other goats in the shortness of its tail. The markhor is further remarkable for 

 the enormous amount of variation in the form and size of the horns ; one variety 

 having them twisted in the form of a corkscrew, with not more than one and a half 

 complete turns, while in another they are twisted on their own axis in the form of 

 a screw, which may have as many as three complete turns. These varieties were 

 formerly regarded as constituting distinct species, but since they are more or 



