242 Goats 



eastern quarter of the Ethiopian region. Goats do not range so far north 

 as sheep, which may be one reason why they have never succeeded in 

 obtaining an entrance into North America via Bering Strait. During 

 the cold conditions which obtained in part of the Plistocene epoch they 

 appear to have been able to exist in Europe near the sea-level. Geologically 

 they seem an essentially modern group, scarcely any well-defined extinct 

 species having been described. The earliest appears to have been a species 

 allied to the markhor from the Pliocene deposits at the foot of the 

 Himalaya ; this species, like the existing Suleman markhor, having evidently 

 lived at a comparatively low elevation above the sea, and probably therefore 

 having been capable ot bearing a high temperature. 



Habits. — All living goats are dwellers on steep cliffs and display 

 remarkable powers of climbing. In this respect they differ markedly from 

 most of the larger sheep of the caprovine group, which, as mentioned 

 above, prefer open rolling valleys and plateaux. The bharal, the arui, 

 and apparently also the Kamschatkan bighorn, form, ht)wever, to a great 

 extent a transition in this respect between the other sheep and the goats, 

 so that no argument drawn from their habits can be urged as a confirmation 

 of the need of genericallv separating the two groups. All the various 

 species of goats associate in herds, although in many cases the old males 

 keep apart from the females during the greater part of the vear. When 

 they live in regions where trees or bushes flourish, goats are fond of 

 browsing ; and they are all notable for their wariness and difficulty of 

 approach. In tame goats the period of gestation, according to Hodgson, 

 is about 160 days. 



I. The East Caucasian Tur — Capra cvlindricornis 



Ovis cylindricornis, Blyth, Proc. Zoo/. Soc. 1840, p. 68. 



/Egocerospallasi, Rouiller, BiilL Soc. Moscoti., vol. xiv. p. 908, pi. xi. (i 841). 



