1846.] Rough Notes on the Zoology of Candahar. 161 



For particulars regarding the wool of these sheep, I must refer the 

 reader to a former paper, published in the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, No. 99, and likewise to some very pertinent re- 

 marks by Dr. Griffith, in the 120th No. of the same Journal. 57 



No. 47. Capra megaceros, (mihi. For remarks on this species, see 

 McClelland's ' Journal Nat, Hist.') This I consider to be a true wild spe- 

 cies, and not an accidental race as you suppose. It is the " Markhore," 

 or snake -killer of the Afghans. 58 



No. 48. Capra cegagrus : " Boos," of the Afghans : Ibex, of writers 

 on Afghanistan. 



I have nothing to add to my former notice of this animal in 

 McClelland's 'Journal Nat. Hist.:' the experiments, however, which I 

 was making on the cross between it and the domestic goat, have all failed 

 hitherto, in so far as the production of offspring, inter se, is concerned. 

 I brought from Candahar a half-bred female, the produce of a wild 

 female by a domestic male ; this female was again crossed by a tame 

 goat, and brought forth two fine male animals, by one of which she 

 subsequently had kids which lived and grew up ; none of her offspring 

 however, have as yet bred inter se, and most of them, together with 

 the half-bred mother, are now dead ; I have still a few of the young 

 ones left, and shall notice any produce that may occur from them. As 

 yet, however, we have gained nothing in regard to the opinion that the 

 agagrus is the original stock from which our domestic breeds have 



57. They are sometimes four or five- horned, but this is only an exception, not a 

 general rule, as some accounts would have us believe. — T. H. 



58. In my description of the spiral horns of this animal, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 80, 

 I made a grand mistake in stating the 9pirature to be inwardly directed, as in all spiral- 

 horned domestic goats ; the fact being, that in the Markhore, as in every other species 

 I know of, which has spiral horns in its natural wild state, (e. g. the Indian Antelope, 

 the Addax, Koodoo, and Caffrarian Impoof,) the twirl is in the opposite direction. Capt. 

 Hutton mistook my meaning in his remarks, (Cal. Journ. N. H. II, 541,) upon the 

 " inward tendency, at least at the tips," which I mentioned as being almost invariably 

 observable in the endlessly diversified races of domestic goats; supposing that I intend- 

 ed the convergence generally observable towards the tips of the long arched horns of 

 the majority of wild Caprce,—a. character of very trifling importance, even if constant, 

 which it is not. And 1 may here also remark on the subject of the Himalayan Ibex 

 ( Capra sakeen, nobis), of which my notice was briefly commented upon by Capt. Hutton, 

 that, in addition to the differences which I indicated as distinguishing its horns from 

 those of the Swiss Ibex, the existence of a well developed beard (four inches long, in 

 the head of a young male in the Society's Museum,) affords a conspicuous differential 

 feature ; for the beard of the Swiss Ibex is constantly reduced to the merest rudimentary 

 tuft, such as would remain unnoticed if not specially looked for.— Cur, As. Soc. 



