230 WANDERINGS OF A 



of ibexes had been reputed to be residing. During the first 

 night I was awoke by loud wailing cries in our immediate 

 vicinity, and securing the rifle rushed out, when by the moon- 

 light there appeared a large animal fluttering among the pine- 

 tops above the tent. On discharging a barrel, a large flying 

 squirrel dropped dead at my feet. It turned out to be the 

 chestnut species (Pteromys magnificus), which the shickaree 

 said was common in the district. Its fur was very soft, and 

 of a deep chestnut colour above, with lower parts of a lighter 

 hue, and the tail tipped with black. The specimen, a female, 

 measured 16 J inches ■ from head to tail ; the latter was 20 

 inches in length. This flying squirrel is nocturnal in habits, 

 secreting itself in hollows of decayed trees, and feeds on the 

 tender shoots of the pine. Two were said to be the number 

 of young born at one litter. In order to gain time, we took 

 up a position on the following night on a cliff under beetling 

 crags, to await the ibexes at daybreak, when they descended 

 to feed on the grassy slope. As we lay rolled up in our rugs, 

 about midnight a rush of earth and gravel awoke us, and we 

 could hear the pattering of feet immediately above. This con- 

 tinued throughout the remainder of the night, and when the 

 first dawn of day appeared, we silently reconnoitred and 

 found an ibex and her kid lying in a hollow immediately 

 above our resting-place. As we expected a herd, it was de- 

 cided that the disturbers of our night's repose should be al- 

 lowed to decamp ; but our sudden appearance so electrified 

 the old goat, that she gazed at us for a few seconds, and even 

 permitted the shickaree to advance within a few yards before 

 she sprang across a fissure and clambered with her kid up 

 the face of an almost perpendicular scarp. We were cautiously 

 picking our footsteps with alpenstock across the dangerous 

 rents and slippery pinnacles, peering down into yawning gulfs 



