The PASENG is the wild Goat of Western Asia; it is also found on the northern side of the Caucasus and in some of the islands of the Ægean. In height the male measures two feet and three-quarters at the withers, the female being nearly six inches less. In the male the horns may measure as much as four feet in length. They are flattened, slender, curved backwards as part of a large circle, having their points turned sometimes inwards, so much so as now and again to cross, whilst at others they are directed outwards. Along their anterior edges are protuberances, separated by a greater distance as they approach the tips, indicative of the age of the animal, as after the third year a fresh knob is formed in each succeeding one. Mr. Danford, who has made a special study of the species, remarks, with reference to the reputed use to which their owners turn their immense cranial appendages, that “regarding the use of the great horns carried by the Ibex family, the general idea among the older authors was that they were employed to break the animal’s fall in leaping from a height. Pennant relates that Monardes was witness to the wild Goat saving itself in this way; and Gesner says: ‘Cadens ab alto totum corpus inter cornua protegit a collisione et ictus lapidum magnorum excipit cornibus!’[4] This view is confirmed by Mr. Hutton, whose tame Aegagrus [Paseng] repeatedly used his horns for this purpose. I made many inquiries among the native hunters, and they all agreed in saying that the horns were never so used, or for any purpose except fighting; and the result of my own observations is, that during the leap the head is carried as far back as possible, though it may be that the situations in which I observed the animals did not necessitate the employment of the horns in the way referred to.” The horns of the female are not more than a foot long, the knobs being almost obsolete. Unlike its consort, also, it has no beard. The general colour of the species is grey, shaded with reddish-brown. A blackish-brown line extends from the similarly coloured forehead along the spine.

MARKHOOR.

The MARKHOOR, or “Serpent Eater,” of North-east India and Cashmere, is a fine Goat of larger size than the Ibex, with much-flattened triangular horns, which, while running upwards from the head, are spiral and attain an immense size, sometimes as much as five feet along their curve. The spiral twist is much more open in some specimens than in others, depending on the locality in which they are found. The body colour is a dirty light blue-grey, the lengthy beard being of a darker colour. It inhabits very similar localities to the Ibexes and is very shy.

The TAHR of the Himalayas is a not common Goat, with small horns curved directly backwards, not much more than a foot in length, flattened from side to side, with a notched anterior margin. The body colour is a fawn-brown; the hair of the neck, chest, and shoulders being of great length and reaching to the knees. In the female the horns are much smaller and of lighter colour. According to Captain Kinloch, “the Tahr is, like the Markhoor, a forest-loving animal, and although it sometimes resorts to the rocky summits of the hills, it generally prefers the steep slopes which are more or less clothed with trees. Female Tahr may be frequently found on open ground, but old males hide a great deal in the thickest jungle, lying during the heat of the day under the shade of trees or overhanging rocks. Nearly perpendicular hills, with dangerous precipices, where the forest consists of oak and ringall cane, are the favourite haunts of the old Tahr, who climb with ease over ground where one would hardly imagine that any animal could find a footing. Tahr ground, indeed, is about the worst walking I know, almost rivalling Markhoor ground; the only advantage being that, bad as it is, there are generally some bushes or grass to hold on to.”

THE GAZELLES.[5]

Under the title of Gazelles are included several strikingly elegant, small, slender, sandy-coloured species of ruminating animals, in which the males always, and the females in most cases, carry horns, which are transversely ringed, and vary considerably in the direction which they take, many having them curved in such a way that the two together form a lyre-shaped figure, at the same time that in others they are nearly straight, turned slightly backwards or forwards, and diverging or converging at the tips. Where present, the horns of the females are more slender than in the corresponding males.

The Gazelles inhabit Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, and Central Asia only. They rarely exceed thirty inches in height at the shoulder; the largest, the Swift Antelope of Pennant (Gazella mohr), reaching nearly three feet. In all the Gazelles the face is marked with a white band running from the outer side of the base of each horn nearly down to the upper end of each nostril, cutting off a dark triangular central patch, and bordered externally by a diffused dark line. The under surface of the abdomen is white, and there is a dark line traversing the flank which bounds this. The rump is also white, which in many cases encroaches more or less upon the haunches.

Of the twenty species of Gazelles known to naturalists, only a few of the best known will be specially mentioned here. By Sir Victor Brooke they have been thus arranged, in accordance with certain easily ascertained distinctive features in coloration and shape of horn:—

I.—BACK UNSTRIPED.

A. The white colour of the rump not encroaching on the fawn colour of the haunches.

a. Both sexes bearing horns.

1. HORNS LYRATE OR SEMI-LYRATE.

The Gazelle (Arabia and N.E. Africa).

Sundevall’s Gazelle (Sennaar).

Isabelline Gazelle (Kordofan).

Black-tailed Gazelle (Bogosland).

Korin (Senegal).

1. HORNS NOT LYRATE.

Cuvier’s Gazelle (Morocco).

Arabian Gazelle (S. Arabia).

Small-horned Gazelle (Sennaar).

Bennett’s Gazelle (India).

Speke’s Gazelle (Somali Country).

Dusky-faced Gazelle (Persia).

Muscat Gazelle (Muscat).

b. Females hornless.

Persian Gazelle.

Ladakh Gazelle.

Mongolian Gazelle.

B. The white colour of the rump projects forward in an angle into the fawn colour of the haunches.

Dama Antelope (S. Nubia).

Soemmerring’s Antelope (E. Africa).

Swift Antelope (Senegal).

Grant’s Gazelle (Ugogo).

II.—BACK WITH A MEDIAN WHITE STRIPE.

Spring-bok (S. Africa).