Alpine Ibex 27 



and, so far as my own observations go, they show a distinct tendency to 

 bevelling of the outer angle of the front surface, while the transverse knots 

 are generally thinner and tend to have the outer half less developed than 

 the inner portion. 



Mr. Rowland Ward gives the following measurements of horns ot the 

 Alpine ibex : — 



Locality. 



Aosta 

 Styria 

 Aosta 



Savoy 

 Aosta 



p 



Aosta 



In former days it is not improbable that somewhat longer specimens 

 might have been obtained, and Brehm gives the maximum known length 

 as about 40 inches. 



Distribution. — The Alps of Switzerland, Savoy, and the Tyrol, where 

 the species is now practically exterminated, although small herds are 

 preserved in a few valleys on the Italian side ot Monte Rosa. The 

 extermination of the ibex, or steinbok, as it is called in the German-speaking 

 cantons, appears to have been brought about at a very early date. Even 

 in the sixteenth century it seems to have become very rare and local. 

 In the valley of Martinswand the last individual is stated to have been 

 killed in the year i 540,' while from the canton Glarus it was exterminated 

 in 1550, and in 1574 it was difficult to find a buck in Graubiinden. 

 At the commencement of the seventeenth century it had become very 

 scarce in Bergell and the Upper Engadine, where in 161 2 its destruction 



' Klar, Zeitiihrift dcr Furdinandcums fur Tirol, etc. scr. 3, vol. xli. p. 302 (1S97). 



2 N 



