GORALS. 



257 



been wholly prohibited since last year, but it is feared that this prohibition has 

 been effected too late to prevent the extinction of the few now left, for the leopards 

 are most deadly and persistent enemies, and it is a very difficult matter for a small 

 herd to hold its own and increase in spite of their depredations. 



THE GORALS. 

 Genus Cemas. 



The goral (Cemas goral) of the Himalaya is our first representative of an 

 assemblage of mountain-haunting Ruminants which to a great extent connect the 

 goats with the antelopes. Most of these animals have a more or less goat-like build, 



THE GORAL (A nat. size). 



goat-like teeth, short tails, relatively small cylindrical horns, and no beards. The 

 goral is a relatively small creature, standing only 27 inches at the shoulder, and 

 having somewhat stout limbs, and rather coarse short hair, which becomes elon- 

 gated into a slight crest along the back of the neck. Its general colour is brown, 

 with a more or less rufous or grey tinge ; but there is a dark stripe from the nape 

 of the neck to the black tail, and another down the front of each leg, while the 

 throat is white. The muzzle is naked ; and the face, as in the goats, has no gland 

 below the eye, while the skull lacks any depression in the same region. The 

 short, black, and conical horns curve regularly backwards, and are marked, except 

 at the tip, by a number of small and irregular rings. In the bucks they may vary 

 VOL. ii. 17 



