1832.] Further Illustrations of the Antilope Hodgsonii. 61 



I have now by me the skin of a Chiru, the covering- of which is so 

 little peculiar that it might almost pass for that of any ordinarily 

 coated animal of the Antilopine, or Cervine family. The head, 

 ears, and limbs, are always dressed in fine close fur of a common 

 kind ; and the hair of the tail, though longer and looser, is of a like 

 ordinary description. The rufous tinge upon the superior surface of 

 the Chiru is apt to be superseded in age, by a hoary dull white, on the 

 crown of the head, neck, and buttocks. The dark marks on the face 

 and fronts of the limbs are not black, but dark brown ; darkest in 

 the oldest animals. The lower part of the forehead only, or more pro- 

 perly the face, is darkened, and not the forehead, at least never the 

 upper part of it ; and the stripes down the limbs depend for their full 

 development on maturity, young animals wanting them more or less, 

 especially on the hind legs above the hocks. The tail, on its upper 

 surface, is always coloured like the proximate part of the back. 



The special habitat of the Chiru is north-eastern Tibet, and he is 

 never seen, except casually, so far west as Ladakh. He inhabits open 

 plains exclusively, never frequenting either mountains or woods ; or 

 associating with the musks or wild sheep. 



If therefore the Kemas of iElian is justly characterised as having a 

 white tail, and residing in woods, the Kemas is not the Chiru, as Major 

 H. Smith surmises it to be. The drawings and technical description 

 of the skull and horns of the Chiru annexed (pi. IV.) will 1 think 

 suffice to prove that the Chiru's horns are not set on "parallel to the 

 plane of the face," according to the same able author's statement. Whe- 

 ther or not the horns rest on the " crest of the frontals," I cannot say ; 

 not precisely understanding the expression. But 1 fancy this must be 

 a mistake ; since the horns quit the forehead between the orbits and 

 not behind them ; and the frontal bones, continued behind the horns, 

 are considerably higher there than where the horns rise from them. 



I have taken peculiar pains in ascertaining the habitat of the Chiru, 

 and have no doubt, now, that the species frequent the open plains of 

 north-eastern Tibet, exclusively. Nor do I see any reason to distrust 

 my present information, that the species is very gregarious, and that 

 the females have no horns. 



By the sinuses within the osseous cores of his horns, and by the 

 signal compression of their bases, the Chiru is related to the genus 

 Capra, as also, by the partial and peculiar development of the annuli. 

 We might add, as additional features of resemblance, the total 

 absence of the lachrymal sinuses and the dry muzzle. But here the 



