MAMMALIA. 



87 



to be regretted, for although horns abound in collections, perfect skins are excessively rare, 

 and there are none in Calcutta. I regret that for want of sufficiently good specimens I am 

 unable to give a figure of this species. 



It should be mentioned that Dr. Severtzoff and Colonel Prejevalski distinguish the true 

 Copra sibirica of Siberia and North-Eastern Turkestan from C. skyn of the Himalayas, but 

 the former states that his opportunities of comparison are insufficient to decide the question, 

 and he appears chiefly to base his belief in the distinction of the two forms on the differences 

 presented by the wild sheep of the same regions. Colonel Prejevalski refers the animal 

 he met with on the Juldus ranges of the Thian-Shan east-south-east of Kulja to 0. skyn, 

 because the horns curve towards each other at their extremities, but C. sibirica may vary in 

 this character as C. cegagrus does. 



I have compared the female skins with Pallas' original description of the Siberian ibex, 

 and am inclined to believe that they agree, but that the general colour of the Kashghar ibex 

 is rather darker. The solitary (female) specimen from near Sanjii, south of Yarkand, has 

 the anterior portions of the legs brown instead of black, but this appears due to immaturity. 



The skin of an old female is dull greyish-brown above, the woolly under-fur being ash- 

 grey, the longer hairs brown, with pale tips ; there is a rudimentary dark streak down the 

 hinder portion of the back. The ears are the same colour as the back, the edges dark-brown, 

 the inner portion whitish. Head rather paler, owing to the pale tips of the hair being longer. 

 There is a dark line round both lips, interrupted by a whitish spot at the front of the lower 

 lip ; the dark space is broader on the lower lip than on the upper, and on the latter there is 

 a narrow pale line between the dark line and the lip , The breast is quite as dark as the back ; 

 lower parts, hinder portions of limbs, inner side of thighs and a narrow area below the tail, 

 including the sides of the tail near the base, whitish, tail blackish-brown, front of all limbs 

 down to the hoofs dark brown, almost black in parts, the black extending in a line up the 

 front of the shoulder and thigh and being gradually lost. There is black hair all round the 

 feet close to both the true and supplementary hoofs. 



In younger animals the colour is paler, and the black marks in front of the legs are less 

 distinct, especially near the hoofs. 



In the only adult male head which retains the skin (the horns are 35 inches long round 

 the curve), the beard is greyish-brown like the rest of the hair, not black ; the hairs being 

 eight inches long. The colour of this head is similar to that of the female. 



Hay ward 1 states that the ibex of the Kuenlun near Sanjii differs from that of Kashmir 

 and resembles the " black ibex" of Baltistan. The horns, he adds, appear thinner and the 

 knots are not so well defined as in the animals found in Kashmir and Ladak. 



Copra sibirica is known to extend throughout a large area in Central Asia. It is com- 

 mon on the Pamir and in Wakhan, 2 and is probably found throughout the Hindu Kush, 

 which, with the Thian-Shan ranges, must be its most western habitat. It extends throughout 

 the inner portion of the Western Himalayas and the mountainous parts of Tibet, but it 

 has not yet been obtained from the Eastern Himalayas, though I have heard of its occurrence 

 in Tibet, north of Sikkim. To the northward it is found in the Altai and Sayansk mountains 

 on the frontier of Siberia, south-west of Lake Baikal. 



iJour. Eoy. Geog. Soc, 1870, XL, p. 69. 



1 Captain Biddulph tells me that he learned in Wakhan that some years since iber existed there in great numbers, but that 

 uiany died of a murrain which broke out, and the numbers are now less. 



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