1026 JO URN A L, BO MB A Y NA TURAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



The photographs show types from these localities. Horns from the 

 Sulieman mountains are straight, and the tendency is for them to curl more 

 and more, as we follow them through Chitral, Chilas and Astor to the Kaj-i- 

 Nag. No particular reason can be assigned for this. 



Seeing, however, that the Suliemans are generally devoid of forest, and 



Chitral nearly so, while the jungle be- 

 comes denser as we follow the range of 

 the markhor to the Kaj-i-Nag, which is 

 heavily wooded, I am inclined to the 

 theory that the horns are found to assi- 

 milate to a type best suited to synchro- 

 nise with the character of the country 

 and cover in which the animal is bred. 

 Individual heads, of course, vary, and 

 local varieties may merge into one 

 another, except in the case of the Kaj-i- 

 Nag and Pir Panjal, between which and 

 the Chilas and Astor districts there is 

 an area devoid of markhor. It has, 

 however, been ascertained that the loca- 

 lity in which the trophy was obtained 

 can generally be determined according to 

 whether it approximates to one or other 

 of the types shown in the photographs. 

 ] . Straight Hobn, Sulieman I may mention that these photographs 

 Makkhor, 38", picked up in Kabul. are f specimens selected not for their 

 size, but as typical of the five groups of unlabelled horns, into which an 

 officer unacquainted with markhor shooting separated a large number of heads 

 in possession of the 5th Gurkha Eifles. It was afterwards found that the 

 groups thus selected corresponded exactly with the groups of localities in 

 which the animals were shot. 



The average length of the Chitral, Chilas, Astor and Kaj-i-Nag horns in this 

 collection was found to be 45'5 inches round the curve. This method of 

 measurement hardly does justice to the Chitral markhor, a larger and heavier 

 animal than his brother of the Kaj-i-Nag. 



H. P. BKOWNE, Captain, 



5th Gurkha Rifles. 

 Indian Staff College, Deolali, 

 \Q(h February 1907. 



No. XX.— "SHOT-BORERS" IN BAMBOOS. 



I notice in the Journal No. 2. Vol. XVII., p. 526, the notes of Mr. N. F. 

 Troup on "Shot-borers" in bamboos that have been felled on moonlight 

 nights. The cause is this : the bamboo is powerfully affected by the moon, and 



