1901.] KASHMIR IBEX. 93 



black, with chestnut tips to the hairs. A narrow band of very 

 pale greyish fawn along each flank ; thighs and shoulders a darker 

 fawn ; legs deep golden brown, with a small patch of brownish 

 buff on the back ot the hinder pair, above the lateral hoofs. The 

 head, as in all the allied forms, is brownish. 



Here it may be mentioned that I regard the Kashmir Ibex not 

 as a distinct species, but as a local race of the Asiatic Ibex, under 

 the name of G. silnriea sacin (see text-fig. 1 2, c, p. 92). 



Recently I have described ^ a second race of the species, from 

 Baltistan,as C.sihirica wardi. Of this race the Museum possesses 

 the mounted type example presented. by Mr. Rowland Ward, and 

 an imperfect skin given by Mr. St. George Littledale ; both 

 specimens being in rhe \\'inter dress. Contrasted with the foregoing 

 race, this form presents ths following distinctive features ; — 



Buffish-white area on back considerably smaller, with a more 

 distinct and darker dorsal streak, and thus forming only a 

 " saddle." Another patch of bui3: on nape of neck also huffish 

 white. Whole of remainder of upper-parts, under-parts (except 

 abdomen, which is whitish), limbs, and tail dark brown, varying 

 somewhat in shade in different parts ; in some cases (as in Mr. 

 Littledale's example) a patch of brownish buff on the posterior 

 surface of the hind legs above the hocks (see text-fig. 12, h). 



A third (Irtish) race, from farther north in Cental Asia, has 

 been described by ]Mr. Walter Rothschild - as C. sihiricK lijdeM-eri 

 (see text-fig. 12, a). 



In this form (which is also represented by specimens in the 

 winter coat), the light saddle is reduced to a still smaller size 

 than in the last, and the light nape-patch is likewise smaller, and 

 separated by a longer interval from the saddle ; the brown tail is 

 bordered with white, and there are also small patches of white on 

 the buttocks adjacent to the tail ; the v/hole of the rest of the 

 upper-parts, as well as the limbs and under-parts, are brown, of a 

 somewhat lighter shade than in the Baltistan race. 



Finally, we have what I take to be the typical race of the 

 species, as represented in the British Museum by two mounted 

 male examples in the winter coat, one of which is from the Thian 

 Shan, and the other from Siberia. These specimens have the whole 

 of the upper-parts uniformly coloured, the tint being a full brown 

 in the one first mentioned, but somewhat lighter in the second. 

 Both are further distinguished by the circumstance that the whole 

 of the posterior surface of the metatarsal segment of the hind leg 

 is white. 



It seems, therefore, that not only are all the aforesaid four 

 races perfectly easy of definition, but that, so far as coloration is 

 concerned, there is a transition from the Kashmiri to the Thian- 

 Shan form ; the one being the lightest, and the other the darkest 

 of the four. 



And in this connection it may be remarked that the light- 



' Great and Small Game of India, Burma, and Tibet, p. 101 (1900). 

 - Novitates Zoologicse, vol. vii. p. 277 (1900). 



