sb. Zool. [Native name.]
1. The native name in Nepāl of a goat-antelope, Nemorhædus bubalina, belonging to the same genus as the Goral (N. goral).
1833. B. H. Hodgson, in Proc. Zool. Soc., 10 Sept., 105. As compared with the Ghŏrăl, Antilope Goral, Hardw. … the Thâr is a massive beast, twice the size, and has suborbital sinuses, and a mane along the back of the neck and shoulders. Ibid., 24 Sept., 111. A cavity also exists in the osseous core of the horns of the Thâr Antelope. Ibid. (1834), 12 Aug., 86.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 89/2. The Thar (A. thar, Hodgson) was described for the first time in a paper by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., British resident in Nepaul…. The thar inhabits the central region of Nepaul.
1885. Cycl. India, III. 885/1. Thar, the forest goat, is the Nepal name of Nemorhædus bubalina, called Eimu and Ramu on the Sutlej and Kashmir, and Serow in the hills generally.
2. Also applied to the TEHR, or Himalayan wild goat (Hemitragus jemlaicus).
1896. List Anim. Zool. Soc., 166. Hemitragus jemlaicus (Hodgs.) Thar.
1903. Webber, Forests Upper India, vi. 52. Hemitragus jemlaicus is a true wild goat, here called ‘thar’ by the natives…. The thar is gregarious.
1902. Lydekker, in Encycl. Brit., XXXIII. 939/1. The discovery of a species of thar (Hemitragus) in southern Arabia.
1903. Spectator, 4 April, 527/2. Open and high ground … more suitable for wild sheep, such as the thar.
