464 MR. C. G. DANFORD ON THE [June 1, 
necessary to mention this, as both Fitzinger (Sitzungsb. d. k. Akad. in 
Wien, xxxvi. p. 471) and Blasius (Siugeth. Deutsch. p. 485) say, 
‘‘both sexes carry a strong beard.” Its size, Herr Kotschy remarks 
(Reise in cil. Tau. p. 441), ‘‘exceeds in every respect that of the 
European Ibex ; and it attains not unfrequently a length of 64 feet.” 
This is quite likely to be correct, as a male of six years measured by 
myself was 5 feet 54 inches from nose to tip of tail, and stood 2 feet 
94 inches at the shoulder; while a female of the same age was 
4 feet long, and 2 feet 3 inches at the shoulder. 
The development of the horn takes place, as has been shown, in 
the first year, and progresses in well-marked annual growths, the 
sizes of which are naturally regulated by the robustness of the 
animal and the supply of food. The yearly growths seem to be 
greatest from the third to the sixth year, the subsequent additions 
being successively smaller. The first well-developed knob may be 
generally taken to denote the termination of the third year. The 
greatest age attained in the present series seems to be (by the 
showing of these divisions) twelve years; but this is not the 
maximum, as Herr Kotschy mentions that ‘“‘two splendid pairs of 
fifteen-year old Ibex were brought to him” (Reise in cil. Tau. 
p. 244). 
The specimens now exhibited form part of a series of twenty-two 
pairs, eight of which I obtained from animals in the flesh. The 
finest head is that of a twelve-year old, and has the following 
measurements :—Superior curve 474 inches, chord 224, spread 2, 
basal circumference 93, weight 10; lbs. The greatest length which I 
find recorded is that in a living specimen possessed by Mr. Hutton, 
which had horns 404 inches. A specimen in the St.-Petersburg 
Museum was 40 inches, and another 39 inches. The latter had the 
great girth of 12 inches (Tch. Asie Min. vol. ii. p. 679). There is, 
however, in the British Museum the horn of a twelve-year old, 
which measures 481 inches on the curve; and even this I do not 
believe to be by any means the greatest length attained, having 
often been told by the native sportsmen of the Taurus that they had 
seen horns of six and seven spans, which, taking the largest pair 
before us roughly at 5} spans, would give the enormous length of 
5 feet. The spread of the horns varies much in the male; but the 
direction of the points in specimens from the Caucasus and Asia 
Minor is almost invariably inward. 
When exhibiting some horns of Capra egagrus from Shiraz and 
Ispahan in Persia, Mr. Blanford remarked that they did not curve so 
much inward as those figured by Blasius in his ‘‘ Wirbelthiere Euro- 
pa’s”’ (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 248); and in some pairs, said to have 
come from Sind, which I examined, the direction of the points was 
decidedly outward; and Mr. Hutton’s Afghanistan head had a width 
of 222 inches. In the present series the horns in one case absolutely 
cross (fig. 1, p. 466), in another they meet, and all curve inwards 
with one exception. This latter specimen (fig. 2, p. 466), killed 
thirty years ago on the Mountain of Chander in the Solyman range, 
is further remarkable in that, though only the head of an eight-year 
