the period is
five months, and the female produces sometimes twice a year, and from
two to occasionally four at a birth. The goat is a hardy animal,
subsisting on the coarsest herbage, but its flesh and milk can be
immensely improved by a selected diet. Some of the small domestic
goats of Bengal are wonderful milkers. I have kept them for years
in Calcutta for the use of my children, and once took two of them
with me to Marseilles by the 'Messageries' Steamers. I prefer them
to the larger goats of the North-west. My children have been
singularly free from ailments during their infancy, and I attribute
the immunity chiefly to the use of goats' milk drawn fresh as required.
Of the wild goats, to which I must now confine my attention, there
are two groups, viz. the true goats and the antelope goats. Of the
former there is a sub-genus--_Hemitragus_--which have no feet-pits,
but have a muffle and occasionally four mammae, which form a
connecting link with the _Cervidae_. In all other respects
_Hemitragus_ is distinctly caprine.

NO. 446. CAPRA MEGACEROS.
_The Markhor_ (_Jerdon's No. 234_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Mar-khor_ (i.e. snake-eater), in Afghanistan,
Kashmir, &c.; _Ra-che_, or _Ra-pho-che_, Ladakhi.

HABITAT.--The mountain districts of Afghanistan, and the highest
parts of the Thibetan Himalayas. On the Pir Panjal, in Kashmir, the
Hazarah hills, the hills north of the Jhelum, the Wurdwan hills west
of the Beas river, on the Suleiman range, and in Ladakh.

DESCRIPTION.--General colour a dirty light-blue gray, with a darker
beard; in summer with a reddish tinge; the neck and breast clad with
long dark hair, reaching to the knees; hair long and shaggy;
fore-legs brown. The females are redder, with shorter hair, short
black beard, but no mane, and with small horns slightly twisted.

The horns of an old male are a magnificent trophy. Kinloch records
having seen a pair, of which the unbroken horn measured sixty-three
inches, and its fellow, which had got damaged, had fifty-seven inches
left. Forty to fifty inches is, however, a fair average. According
to Kinloch the very long horns are not so thick and massive as those
of average length. Jerdon says the longest horns have three complete
spiral twists.

The horns of certain varieties differ so much that I may say species
have been settled with less to go upon. Kinloch notes four varieties.
I have hitherto reckoned only two, but he gives--

No. 1.--Pir Panjal markhor;