536 Snake-Eater of the Afghans. 



being very pale, nearly fading to white, and with a dark line 

 along their anterior sides. Under and inner parts paler, belly 

 whitish. The female possesses no beard; she has a broad 

 and deep chest, stout limbs, and possesses altogether enor- 

 mous muscular power, which is evinced in the tremendous 

 and surprising leaps in which she frequently indulged. She 

 was quite tame, having been captured young, and reared with 

 a domestic flock. Her horns were spiral and erect, but were 

 usually carried pointing obliquely backwards. There is no 

 lachrymal sinus. 



This animal is even more active than the preceding spe- 

 cies. The female here described was confined in the same 

 yard with the iEgagrus, and her chief amusement consisted 

 in leaping over the wall, and making her escape to the roofs 

 of the houses, where she leaped and gambolled about on the 

 very narrowest ledges, with as much indifference to danger 

 as if she had been on terra firma. 



Often have I watched her walking along a place which 

 barely yielded room for her feet, and at a height of nearly 

 thirty feet from the ground, in the nervous apprehension of 

 seeing her fall and fracture her limbs. The only way to 

 bring her down from this aerial excursion, was by sending 

 up one or two people to the roof, and driving her down the 

 steps which led to the top. One day after a long hunt, in 

 which she seemed obstinately bent on avoiding the steps, she 

 was at length driven upon a narrow ledge of single tiles pro- 

 jecting from the top of one of the houses, which formed the 

 side of the yard where she was confined. Every instant I 

 expected to see the tiles give way and the animal precipitated 

 to the ground, but she seemed herself to be perfectly aware 

 of the insecurity of her position, and proceeded both slowly 

 and cautiously, frequently kneeling down, and looking as if to 

 calculate the distance she had to fall. At length she arrived 

 at a spot immediately over a covered gateway, about eighteen 

 feet below her, and taking one look around her, she coolly 



