272 Goats 



short thick under-fur ; at all seasons longer on the back of the neck, where 

 it forms a kind of short mane in the old bucks. In summer the general 

 colour of the upper-parts reddish-gray, in winter yellowish-grav ; under- 

 parts paler, and separated from the dark ot the back by a chocolate-brown 

 streak ; a light brown stripe down the middle of the back ; forehead, 

 cheeks, nose, throat, beard, upper surface of tail, and the lower portion of 

 the legs dark brown ; on the chin, in front ot the eyes, beneath the ears 

 the colour tending to rusty ; ears fawn-brown externally, whitish intern- 

 ally ; hinder part of abdomen nearly white. With advancing age the 

 coloration tends to become more and more uniform. Horns yellowish or 

 olive-brown. 



At the present day it is difficult to be certain that specimens of the 

 ibex have not some intermixture of the common goat in their pedigree ; 

 and it is probable that to such crossings are due certain deviations from 

 the coloration described. For example, a mounted specimen purchased 

 by the British Museum in 1S97 shows a whitish ring round each eye, 

 and a spot ot the same colour on each side ot the upper jaw behind the 

 lip, and another on the lower jaw ; the middle portion ot the hinder 

 surface of the cannon-bones has also whitish hair, as in the Himalayan 

 race of the Asiatic ibex. In other specimens in the Museum, procured 

 many years ago, these light markings are wanting, and they are accordingly 

 regarded as aberrant. 



The distinctive features of this species, to which the names ibex and 

 steinbok are properly restricted, appear to be the broad front surface of 

 the horns and the small size of the beard of the males, together with the 

 relatively short ears. All three features readily serve to differentiate the 

 species from the Arabian ibex; while the shortness of the beard dis- 

 tinguishes it from the Asiatic species, to which, however, it is much more 

 closely allied. The horns are, indeed, very difficult to distinguish from 

 those of the latter ; but they never appear to attain such large dimensions ; 



