THE BURHEL 139 



equalled by such animals as the prong-horn antelope 

 of North America and some of the plain-dwellers 

 of Africa ; whilst so closely do they assimilate with 

 their surroundings that it is no difficult matter, as 

 they stand motionless amid the rocks, to pass them 

 over, even with the aid of a powerful glass. The 

 sheep of Western Kansu is no exception to these 

 remarks. In size and weight a full-grown ram is 

 about equal to a fallow deer, standing some 36 

 inches at the shoulder, and weighing ten or eleven 

 stone. His blue-brown body and legs are hand- 

 somely marked with black and white, whilst his 

 graceful curving horns are more reminiscent of the 

 goat tribe than of the species of which he forms a 

 somewhat aberrant member. Closely allied to the 

 burhel (Pseudois nahura) of India, he " not impro- 

 bably represents a distinct race," according to Mr. 

 Lydekker. Burhel have been recorded from 

 Szechuan, though I am surprised to find them 

 mentioned as also coming from Shensi. I fancied 

 Kansu was the easternmost limit of their range. 



According to Hodgson, the burhel differs from 

 the typical sheep by the absence of face glands and 

 the pits for their reception in the skull, this being a 

 feature in which it resembles the goats. The tail 

 is more like that of a goat than a sheep. The 

 angulation of the horns is less marked and their 

 ^direction is more outward than in ordinary goats, 

 but in this respect they are paralleled by the horns 

 of the East Causasian tur (Capra cylindricornis}. 

 There are glands between the hoofs of all four feet, 

 and in this respect it agrees with the sheep and 

 differs from the goat, as in the fact that the males 

 have no beards. Mr. Blandford writes as follows : 



