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Show 1886.] MR. P. L. S C L A T E R O N W I L D GOATS. 317 Mountains and the Ibex of the Himalayas (which is found throughout that range from Cashmere to Nepaul) should be referred to one species; but I am not aware that any one has made an exact comparison of specimens from these two localities. The animal certainly belongs to the same group as the Ibex of the Alps and that of the Sinaitic peninsula. W e have never yet succeeded in obtaining living examples of it. In Siberia, Radde tells us, this Ibex is found only in the Altai and Sagan Mountains. 8. CAPRA FALCONERI. A^goceros falconeri, Wagn. Munch. Gel. Anz. ix. p. 430 (1839), Capra megaceros, Hatton, Calcutta Journ. N. H. ii. p. 535, pi. xx. (1842); Schiter and Wolf, Zool. Sketches, ser. ii. pi. xx. Capra falconeri, Hiigel, Kaschmir u. d. Reich, d. Siek, iv. p. 579 (1848); Blanford, J.A.S.B. xliv. pt. i. p. 17 (1875). The Markhoor, although regarded by Blyth (at one time) and by Gray altogether as merely a variety of the Domestic Goat, is now universally recognized as a most distinct species, distinguished at once by its long massive spirally-twisted horns, which readily separate it from every other known member of the genus. It is not found in the Himalayas proper, but extends from the Pir-panjal range, south of Cashmere, into Afghanistan and Gilgit on the one side, and the Sulemani range on the other. Colonel Kinloch, the most recent writer on the larger game of India, states that four well-marked varieties of the Markhoor are easily recognizable. To two of these--in one of which the horns have a more open spiral (Capra megaceros), and in the other a closer spiral (Capra jerdoni)-he assigns distinct specific names1. The living specimens we bave received have belonged, I believe, to the latter variety. A pair of this species, presented by Major Pollock in 1866, bred for several years in the Gardens; but we are now, I regret to say, without any representative of this fine animal. 9. CAPRA JEMLANICA. Capra jemlanica, Ham.-Smith, Griff. An. King. iv. p. 308. Capra jemlaica, Sclater and Wolf, Zool. Sketch, ser. i. pi. xxv. This species and the following have been separated from the true Goats by Dr. Gray as having " a moist naked muffle." But this is, I think, a question of degree, as there is certainly a small moist muffle, although not so well developed, present in some species of true Capra, for example in Capra sinaitica. These forms, however, differ from the Goats in their short, thick, and much compressed horns. The " Tahr," as this species is usually called by Indian sportsmen, is found on suitable ground along the whole range of the Himalayas, from Cashmere to Bootan. W e received our first specimen of this fine and most distinct species in 1852, from Capt. Townley Parker. It was a male, and 1 Kinloch, ' Large Game Shooting,' 1885, pp. 136, 142. |
