1847.] Reply to the Minute of Capt. Munro. 1 173 



my attention to M. Scliinz's description of Sc. ftmbriatus j and it would 

 surely have been more satisfactory to himself to have examined the speci- 

 mens of this animal in the Society's Museum, and to have personally com- 

 pared them with Burnes's figure of the Moosh-i-baldar, than to have resorted 

 to any mere description whatever. 



Had Capt. M. also done me the honour to have looked over my tolerably 

 large collection of carefully executed original drawings of wild Goat and 

 Ibex heads, embracing every species known, except C. caucasica* C. sibirica, 

 and C. pyrenaica, (of which two latter also I could have shown him M. 

 Schinz's published figures, that gentleman having favored me with a copy 

 of his memoir on these animals, and at the same time — 1840-1 — received 

 from me his first intimation, with tracings of my drawings of the horns, &c, 

 of the existence of the Himalayan Ibex, and I believe the Afghan Markhore, 

 with different wild Sheep,) he would have given me credit for being a little 

 more conversant with the group — in common with the other groups of 

 Ruminantia — than he seems to be aware of. ^1 have indeed bestowed much 

 attention upon the different species of wild Capra : and on reperusing what 

 I have written respecting the Booz-i-koh, am still of opinion that it more 

 resembles the C. himalayana, nobis, apud Schinzf (vel C. sakeen, nobis), of 

 the N.'W. Himalaya, as where the Indus breaks through the chain, &c. &c, 

 represented in summer dress, than any other known species. JEgayrus it 

 cannot be, for the horns are knobbed as in C. ibex j and it certainly is not 

 C. sibirica j and I further adhere to what I wrote of C. sakeen, that — " This 

 differs from the Alpine Ibex in possessing a well developed beard : the horns 

 also attain a greater length than in that species, and, in general, attenuate 

 much more towards their tips, being also less widely divergent ; as fully 

 described in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1840, p. 80, 

 where the dimensions are given of a pair measuring 4% ft. over the curva- 

 ture. X A corresponding difference is observable in the horns of the females 

 of these two Ibices," &c. &c. Having said this much, I believe I have 

 pointed out all the differences that exist between the Alpine and Himalayan 

 Ibices; and I deem it unnecessary to enumerate the characters that are 



* I have drawings of the horns referred to C. caucasica by Mr. Gray, in his ' Catalogue 

 of the specimens of mammalia in the British Museum :' but I consider these to belong, 

 decidedly, to C. agagrus ; and suspect that those of C. caucasica will prove to be allied 

 in form to those of C. walie, Ruppell, of the snowy heights of Abyssinia. 



t I have no recollection of employing this name for the animal, but might have done 

 so in the course of my correspondence with Prof. Schinz, at a time when I had no idea 

 of visiting India. 



X The description referred to was by myself, and I have now two drawings of the 

 specimen in different aspects of view. 



