NATURALIST IN INDIA. 231 



and projecting shelves below us, when suddenly EUi Shah's 

 eagle eye caught sight of a herd of ibexes emerging in single 

 file from a narrow chasm underneath, led on by two fine males, 

 one of which was standing on a spiral-topped rock, with his 

 four feet close together in an attitude of observation. Then 

 the shickaree, seizing a handful of dried mat-grass, tossed it 

 up in the air to ascertain how the wind blew, and removing 

 his turban, replaced it by a skuU-cap with the gravity of a judge 

 about to deliver sentence, and gathering up his loins and 

 taking the spare rifle, led the way down a hollow, until, peep- 

 ing cautiously over the edge of the cliff, he suddenly turned 

 towards me crouching behind him, and with a nod and grin 

 of satisfaction, and beaming countenance, as much as to say 

 " We have them now," retired that I might take his place. 

 Eesting the heavy Westley Eichards on the ledge, and raising 

 the 200-yard sight, I covered the fore shoulder of a fine male. 

 Thud -went the bullet on his side and up sprang the herd ; one 

 female strode out on a prqjecting rock, and whilst gazing 

 downwards, the contents of the second barrel pierced her heart, 

 and she sprang into mid-air and fell bumping from rock to 

 rock down into the yawning abyss below. The male, desper- 

 ately wounded, was seen following the herd, which in a few 

 minutes disappeared among the peaks above, whilst we in 

 wild excitement set off in hot pursuit of the former, which 

 was discovered in a dying state, and despatched immediately. 

 The disagreeable odour is common to the wild and tame goats, 

 and is invariably strongest in the males. The flesh is diy and 

 tough, without any remarkable savoury taste, unless that of 

 young individuals. On our way down the mountain, I ob- 

 served a flock of rose finches of a larger, different, and more 

 brilliantly-coloured species than any I had before noted. 

 Like the mountain-finches, they were feeding round the margin 



