144 



GOATS AND SHEEP 



American form, the big-horned sheep (Fig. 121). The lat- 

 ter is a large, powerful animal with splendid horns, which 

 ranges the mountains of western North America. The 

 horns in the female resemble those of a goat, but those of 

 the males are enormous, veritable battering-rams, which 



they use to good pur- 

 pose. I have seen sev- 

 eral specimens taken 

 within forty miles of 

 Los Angeles, but the 

 animals are now rare, 

 even in the solitudes 

 about Mount San An- 

 tonio, where these 

 specimens were cap- 

 tured. They are still 

 common in small herds 

 in the mountains of 

 Lower California. 

 Of the many foreign goatlike forms the ibex (Fig. 122) 

 is the best known, a noble European species having 

 remarkable horns with longitudinal ridges. The Alpine 

 ibex is about three feet high at the shoulder and weighs 

 two hundred pounds. It is a very conspicuous and com- 

 manding animal, highly regarded as game by sportsmen, 

 who penetrate the higher ranges of the Pyrenees and 

 other ranges to capture it. 



The curious musk ox (Fig. 123) is closely allied to the 

 sheep and is confined to the Polar regions, where it has 

 often served as a forlorn hope for starving explorers. In 

 former years it was a common animal over Siberia, Ger- 



FiG. 121. — Big-horned Sheep. 



