MAR-KIIOR. Ilisn.
Rawacheh of LITTLE Tat. I Rua of the . . . Oxes 'Aura or water-goat, „ Capra megaceros.
Capra megaceros of Hutton, the wild goat of Hazara and the N.W. Himalaya, etc., is called mar-khor, because fabled by the mountaineers to kill snakes by looking at them ; and in Yaghistan and Chilas they say that when its foam falls on certain stones it turns them to zahr-mohra. The ibex and mar-khor often dispute each other's footing. It is found on the mountains of Persia and Afghanistan, and is plentiful on the ranges around the Khaibar pass. From Torbela and Little Tibet it wanders down the Suliman Range as far as Mitenkote on the Indus, at the junction of the latter and the Sutlej. It is common on the north-western ranges of Kashmir, including Dardu • from thence a few herds are to be met with all along the southern or Futi Pinjal as far as Kishtewar on the Chenab. The northern ranges of Kashmir and Ladakh are apparently with out a single individual, perhaps on account of the ibex and wild sheep frequenting these mountains.
Mr. Blyth and Dr. J. E. Gray consider this species as most likely a variety of the domestic goat ; but from all Dr. Adams could learn of its habits and appearance, there is perhaps more cause to con sider it the progenitor of the domestic animal than even the ibex. The mar-khor is usually found in small herds. Like the ibex it delights to browse on steep and rocky mountains, ascend ing and descending with the seasons. In winter, in common with other alpine species, the fur becomes dense from the woolly pileage, which gives a lighter colour to the coat than during midsummer and autumn, when it disappears, and the fur is short and brown. Hunters have strange stories of the serpent-eating disposition of the mar-khor. Ajiz Khan assured Dr. Adams that an ammonite he picked up on the mountains had become petrified from having passed through the intestines of a mar-khor.--Adams ; Jet-don.