164 THE BURRELL. 



brittle and very closely set, and when killed in winter, the skin is one of the handsomest I 

 know. 



The horns are peculiarly shaped : they are set very close together, and at first diverge 

 horizontally in two round arches ; then sweep backwards, upwards, and outwards, in a shape 

 different to those of any animal with which I am acquainted. They attain an average length 

 of about twenty-four inches, but occasionally reach thirty inches or more, with a circumference 

 of upwards of twelve inches. Few very large pairs are perfect ; as with other wild sheep, 

 old individuals usually have the tips broken off. 



Female Burrell are not much more than half the size of the males : their color is 

 similar, except that they want the black line along the sides ; and their horns are little, flat, 

 stumpy excrescences. 



Burrell are perhaps even more particular than Ibex in their avoidance of forest, for I 

 have seen the latter among pine trees and bushes, but I have never met with the former 

 exept on the barest and most exposed parts of the hill. They are, however, fond of good 

 pasturage, when it is obtainable, and in Kamaon and Garhwal, they frequent the richest 

 grassy slopes of the green but rocky hills of that region. In Thibet again, where vegetation 

 is extremely scarce, Burrell have but little choice, and large herds may be met with on the 

 most desolate and precipitous mountains ; but even there they prefer localities where the 

 banks of occasional trickling streams afford here and there little oases of verdure. In a 

 word, what they delight in is good grazing ground in the immediate vicinity of rocky fast- 

 nesses, to which they can immediately betake themselves when disturbed. Except in most 

 remote districts, they never stray very far from some stronghold, in which they take refuge 

 on the slightest alarm. 



Burrell are usually found in considerable herds, varying from eight or ten to one hundred 

 or more in number. The males for the most part separate from the females during the summer 

 months, but mixed herds may be seen at all seasons of the year. Few animals are more watch- 

 ful while feeding, some of their number usually keeping a sharp look-out while the remainder 

 are grazing, and a whistle from a sentinel at once causing the herd to seek safety by instant 

 flight. It has been stated that Burrell usually walk away when disturbed, but my experience 

 has been, that, except in very out of the way places, they lose no time in placing a safe dis- 

 tance between themselves and their pursuer, and that they do not stop to gaze nearly so often 

 as the wild goats do. 



With regard to their tameness in very remote districts, Mr. Wilson relates an instance in 

 the admirable " Summer Ramble in the Himalayas," and I have witnessed a similar case. 



I was marching up the valley of the Indus, beyond the Chinese frontier, in 1 866, with 

 my friend B. We were endeavouring to reach the hills to the north of Gartope, where we 

 hoped to find Yak, and with that view had crossed the frontier in the dark, and, accompanied 

 by a few Ladak Tartars, marched all night and concealed ourselves during the day. On the 

 fourth morning we were proceeding up a ravine in which we intended to ' cache ' for the day, 

 when we observed four old male Burrell on the opposite side. They did not take the slightest 

 notice of us, and being in a retired place where there was no danger of our shots being heard 



