508 botidj:. 



Sulenian markhor were 30 inches in length straight and 49 round 

 the curve (beginning behind), girth at. base 10-5; the main ridge 

 made Sj turns. This race is said to be considerably smaller than 

 that of the Pir Panjal and to have a less developed beard. In the 

 extreme south, however, near Quetta, the horns again assume an 

 open spiral. 



The accompanying figures (pp. 506, 507) sho\\' the variation in the 

 horns, but it nuist not be forgotten that intermediate varieties occur. 

 It is true that heads from one locality are, as a rule, similar to each 

 other, but when a series from various places is examined it a])pears 

 to me impossible to draw a line between the different types. 



Habits. These vary with the character of the ground. Kinlocli 

 says : — " Unlike ibex, which keeps to the rugged crags and steep 

 ravines above the limit of the forest, the markhor delights in rocky 

 forests, and although it occasionally comes out into the open glades, 

 it seeks concealment as much as possible." Like other goats it 

 generally occurs in herds, and keeps much to steep rocky cliffs. In 

 Afghanistan, m here forest is, as a rule, wanting, the markhor is found 

 in stony ravines and on steep hill-sides, and is found in some places 

 at a low elevation. AVherever it inhabits high ranges it is usually 

 driven to the valleys when heavy snow falls, and Col. Biddulph, who 

 has noticed that the sensitiveness to cold shown by this goat is due 

 to its wanting the woolly underfur or pashm, so greatly developed 

 in Capra nihirica., tells me that he once found and captured an adult 

 male markhor, driven down by snow, in his garden at Grilgit. 



The markhor is in appearance by far the grandest of all wild 

 goats, and although it attains a considerable weight, no species 

 excels it in agility and skill in climbing difficult and dangerous 

 ground, Hutton, who had both this species and O. a'l/or/nis in cap- 

 tivity, gave the palm to the markhor for agility, and Mr. II. Little- 

 dale, after hunting markhor, remarked on the heavier build of the 

 ibex which he met with in Astor. 



The young, one or two in number, are produced about May and 

 June in Astor and Gilgit. Markhor have repeatedly bred in con- 

 finement with domestic goats, and it was at one time supposed 

 that the tame races with spiral horns were derived from C.falconeri. 

 It is not improbable that some are thus descended. But the spii-al 

 in tame goats is almost always in the reverse direction to that 

 found in ma,rkhor, the anterior ridge in the tame animals turning 

 inwards at first in each horn. I have, however, seen exceptions ; 

 there is one from Nepal in the British Museum. 



Genus HEMITRAGUS, Hodgson (ISIl). 



A small muffle. Mamma> 4 or 2. No suborbital, inguinal, nor 

 iuterdigital glands. No beard. Males odorous. 



Skull long aiul narrow, orbits scarcely projecting. Occi])ilal 

 plane flat, meeting the frontal at a right angle or rather less. 

 Jlorns close together at l;h(> base, small (rarely exceeding 15 or 10 

 inches), not very much larger in males than in females, commencing 



