THE AFGHAN DELIMITATION COMMISSION. 63 



to Bala-morghab. On the march between Ab-i-shora and Tor-shakh we came upon the 

 carcass of an old Boar that had just been killed ; it had attacked and killed a Camel and 

 injured a man. I took its measurements, it was 64 inches from the tip of its nose to the 

 end of its tail, and 37 inches from the hair on its fore foot to the top of its shoulder. In 

 addition to the usual bristles and coarse hair, it had a thick matting of shorter and soft, 

 pashmina-like wool. It was a great fat brute of a dirty white colour all over. This, 

 with the remains of one which must have been a giant amongst its race, that lay on our 

 route close to our camp at Kalla-i-maur, 18th February, 1885, were the only two speci- 

 mens with which I came in contact. The hair and bristles on the latter were deep black. 



On one or two occasions Pigs were ridden at and killed (speared) by some of the party, 

 and frequently they were seen in great herds ; but owing to the religious prejudice 

 relative to this animal, I was unable to obtain specimens for Museum purposes, although 

 several good opportunities occurred for doing so. 



These Pigs were a great pest to those shooting Pheasants at the neai'est locality to our 

 camp at Bala-morghab, as they were heard grunting and blowing in the dense cover close 

 to the shooter, who was never very certain whether they might not rush out and make 

 an attack on him. During the early summer they wander over the whole country, as 

 then there is abundance of water from the melting snows in the valleys leading down 

 from the hills, as well as quantities of fresh food, in the form of roots and bulbs. They 

 regularly hunted for the bulbs of an Arum that grew at the base of bushes in the valleys 

 of the low ranges of hills. I used often to follow their tracks to see what roots they chiefly 

 dug up. During summer there is plenty of cover for them all over the Badghis. Often 

 we came across their remains in localities over which one would never expect they would 

 wander, until a season's experience of this country had opened out one's ideas. In winter 

 they keep to the great stream-bed, and hide in the dense Tamarisk and grass thickets. 

 Where there is cultivation they are a perfect nuisance to the cultivator, especially in the 

 way they attack fields of melons. Amongst these the owners build small walled enclosures 

 with loop-holes, from which to fire on them at night. Until summer came I could not 

 make out what these miniature fortifications could possibly be intended for. — 

 J.E.T.A.] 



14. Ovis cyclocerus, Hutton. 



a. Head; Gulran. b, c. Skulls, with horns; Gulran. d. Head of young; Kanibao, 1/5/85. e,f. 

 Heads; Khusan, 22/11/84. g-i. Heads; Bala-morghab, 12/84. / Immature skin ; Chasma-sahz Pass, 

 27/11/84. 



These specimens all agree very closely, and are of the most pronounced cyclocerus- 

 type, none of them approaching the Sha-poo (O. vignei), from which, however, many 

 zoologists think that O. cyclocerus is hardly separable. The finest horns are those of 

 specimen a, which measure 36 inches in length round the curve, and 23 inches from one 

 horn to the other, between the most distant points of their outer edges. 



11* 



