162 THE SURROW. 



member in one at any rate of the specimens I shot, a 

 whitish - looking discharge rather freely exuded. The 

 surrow is pretty generally, though sparsely, distributed 

 over the whole length of the Himalayan ranges, and from 

 the higher to the outer ones. Its favourite haunts are the 

 wildest of craggy, precipitous, wooded gorges where dense 

 " ringal " (a kind of long, thin, reed-like bamboo) jungle 

 abounds, in the deep, gloomy recesses of which it usually 

 lies up during the day, seldom venturing abroad except in 

 the very early morning and late in the evening to feed, and 

 then usually only a short distance from its sequestered re- 

 treat. For it is of very shy habit, although its disposition 

 is so bold that it is always ready to show fight when 

 wounded, or even in defence of its wounded mate, with 

 which, as well as with their offspring, sometimes it is found 

 in company, though generally a solitary animal. Of its 

 courage the following I know to be an authentic instance. 

 A female surrow had been shot by a sportsman, when, on 

 his native follower approaching to secure it, a male com- 

 panion rushed out from the dense cover hard by, and going 

 for the man, sent him rolling down-hill with a butt from its 

 horns, making good its retreat ere the astonished shooter 

 had time to remonstrate with his rifle. The doe is very 

 similar in size and appearance to the buck, with horns of 

 almost the same length and thickness. Its cry of alarm 

 resembles a kind of sharp shriek, which, like the gooral, 

 it emits at short and regular intervals. When suddenly 

 surprised it sometimes shows a strange amount of stupidity. 

 I have known it stand stock-still at gaze, even after being 

 shot at, if missed. But once started it rushes off headlong 

 regardless of every obstacle in the shape of rough precipi- 

 tous ground, seldom stopping to look back. Its ordure, 

 like that of the musk-deer, is generally found deposited 

 together in large heaps. In the Kumaon district, and also, 

 I believe, in Nepal, it is called " tahr " or *' thar " ; the 

 tahr proper being there called "jharrel." On the more 



