BOVID.E 353 



The European Ibex or Steinbok (Fig. 145), which may bo 

 taken as a typical Groat, stands about 2£ feet in height at the 

 shoulder. In summer the hair is short and smooth, and of an 

 ashy-gray colour, but a long coat is developed in winter. The 

 horns of the male rise in a bold backward sweep from the forehead, 

 and are characterised by the strong transverse ridges on the broad 

 and Hat anterior surface. They are said to be not more than some 

 •_' feet in length, but these dimensions are greatly exceeded by the 

 horns of the Himalayan Ibex. The Alpine Ibex lives at a greater 

 height than the Chamois, spending the day just at the limit of 

 perpetual snow, and descending at night to graze at lower levels. 

 Both this and the Himalayan species generally live in small herds 

 of from five to fifteen or more ; they are wary animals, although not 

 so much so as many of the wild Sheep. The following list, mainly 

 taken from two papers by Mr. Sclater, 1 gives the distribution 

 of the various species of Goats, with some remarks on their 

 peculiarities : — 



(1) C. ibex, confined to the Alps of Switzerland, Savoy, and 

 the Tyrol, and now nearly extinct, except where artificially pre- 

 served. (2) ft sibirica, closely allied to the preceding, but with 

 larger horns, occurs in the Altai Mountains, and throughout the 

 Himalaya from Kashmir to Nipal, and northward towards Turke- 

 stan. (3) ft sinaitica, of the mountains of Upper Egypt, the 

 Sinaitic Peninsula, and Palestine, is allied to the two preceding 

 species, but has the horns somewhat more compressed, with a 

 difference in the ridges on the front. (4) C. caucasica, a very 

 distinct species, confined to the Caucasus, where it inhabits the 

 western part of the Great Caucasus; with thick horns curving 

 backwards and outwards in one plane, with the exception of their 

 tips, which incline inwards. 2 (5) ft pallasi is an allied species from 

 the Eastern Caucasus, distinguished, among other features, by the 

 curvature of the horns, which lie flatter and twist more outward 

 from the forehead, with a greater terminal inward bend. (6) ft 

 pyrenaica, of the Pyrenees, and the higher ranges of Central Spain, 

 Andalusia, and Portugal, is another nearly related species. (7) 

 ft cegagrus, formerly abundant over the Grecian Archipelago, but 

 now restricted in Europe to Crete and some of the Cyclades, is 

 found throughout the mountains of Asia Minor and Persia, and 

 thence to Baluchistan and Sind. The horns are thinner and 

 sharper in front than in the Ibexes, and this species is generally 

 regarded as the ancestral stock of the various breeds of domestic 

 Goats. (8) C. clorcas, a Goat from the island of Jura, near Euboea, 

 has been described under this name, and is apparently nearly allied 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886, p. 314 ; and 1887, p. 552. 



2 Specimens referred by Dinnik to C. caucasica have been made the types of 

 another species — C. severLwi. 



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