ORDER RUMINAXTIA. 317 



to be the ancient German Weissarsch, although this mark 

 is not so distinctly observable in this as in the next species 

 or variety, this circumstance, however, might explain the 

 disputed fittrn Dishon* of the Pentateuch, and wuyagyov of 

 the LXX. ; it is also more consonant with the interpretation 

 of Bochart. 



The male is not much inferior in size to a stag, indivi- 

 duals having been killed that weighed considerably above 

 two hundred pounds. He is about three feet high at the 

 shoulders, and nearly five feet in length. The horns are 

 very large, sometimes near four feet long, and weighing 

 upwards of thirty pounds ; their width is so considerable at 

 the base, that young foxes are said to shelter themselves in 

 such as are found casually on the ground ; they rise near 

 the eyes, before the ears, occupying the greater part of the 

 back of the head, and nearly touching above the forehead, 

 bending at first backwards and downwards, then to the 

 front, and the points finally outwards and upwards ; their 

 base is triangular, with the broadest side towards the fore- 

 head; the surface is wrinkled crossways to beyond their mid- 

 dle, but the extremity is more smooth. Some variation of 

 form occurs in the Argalis of Caucasus, their horns being 

 often only semicircular, almost round at the base, extremely 

 heavy and stout, dark brown, with scarce any wrinkles, not ta- 

 pering, but ending in a stumpy form. The fur of the animal 

 consists of short hair, fulvous-gray in winter, with a ferru- 

 ginous buff-coloured streak along the back, and a large disk 

 of whitish buff on the buttocks, including the tail ; the in- 

 ternal side of the limbs and the belly are still paler, and the 

 chaffron, nose, and throat, are white. In summer the whole 

 fur is more rufous, but the buff-coloured mark on the but- 

 tocks remains unaltered. The female is smaller, with 

 slender horns, nearly straight, and small wrinkles, resemb- 

 ling those of a domestic goat ; the colours of the hair are 



* Dishon, as derived from jcn Discri, cinereous colour. 



