ter
opinion: "Both he and I know of one 16 inches in length, shot by a
well-known South Indian sportsman of the Madras Civil Service, and
in February 1869 at Ootacamund, he and I measured the horn of a
magnificent buck ibex, shot within 15 or 20 miles of that place. The
exact measurements of this mighty horn were 17 inches in length, and
9-3/4 in circumference at the base."

Jerdon states that this goat chiefly frequents the northern and
western slopes of the Neilgherries, where the hills run down in a
succession of steep stony slopes or rocky ridges to the high
table-land of Mysore and the Wynaad, both of which districts are
themselves hilly. It is occasionally seen on the summit of the
northern and western faces, but more generally some distance down,
at an elevation of 4000 to 6000 feet, and, if carefully looked for,
the herd may be seen feeding on an open grassy glade at the foot of
some precipice. "I have," he adds, "seen above twenty individuals
in a flock occasionally, but more generally not more than six or seven.
With the large herds there is almost always one very large old male
conspicuous by his nearly black colour."

Colonel D. Hamilton says he has seen 120 pass out of one valley, which
he thinks were probably the aggregate of several herds, but he has
counted sixty and sixty-five in a herd, and thirty-five in another,
without a single adult buck amongst them. In the _South of India
Observer_ for the 3rd and 17th of September, 1868, will be found most
interesting descriptions of ibex-shooting by "Hawkeye" whose
letters are largely quoted by McMaster; but I can only find space
for one extract here, interesting to both sportsman and
naturalist:--

"It is a pleasant sight to watch a herd of ibex, when undisturbed,
the kids frisking here and there on pinnacles or ledges of rocks and
beetling cliffs, where there seems scarcely safe foothold for
anything much larger than the grasshopper or a fly; the old mother
looking calmly on or grazing steadily while the day is young,
cropping the soft moss or tender herbs and sweet short grass
springing from the crevices of the craggy precipices in rich
abundance. Then, again, to see the caution observed in taking up
their resting or abiding places for the day, where they may be warmed
by the sun, listening to the roar of many waters, and figuratively,
we may say, chewing the cud of contentment, and giving themselves
up to the full enjoyment of their nomadic life and it