THE HORNED ANIMALS— ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 



489 



The Buffalo is relatively more profitable to Man 

 than our domestic Ox, as it requires next to no care 

 and is satisfied with food which all other domestic 

 animals disdain. In marshy localities it is highly 

 useful in tilling the fields also, for what it lacks in 

 intelligence it more than compensates by its enor- 

 mous strength. 



The flesh of the adult Buffalo is not eaten, at least 

 by white Men of other than its native countries, on 

 account of its toughness and the odor of musk 

 which clings to it. The flesh of the calves is said to 

 be very good, however, and their fat to be almost 

 equal to pork in taste and tenderness. . The strong 

 hide yields excellent leather and durable and useful 

 articles of main - kinds are made from the horns. 



formerly sometimes classified with the Antelopes, 

 sometimes with the Goats. 



Description of the The Rocky Mountain Goat, called 

 Rocky Mountain Nane by the Canadians ( Aploccrus 

 Goat. tnontanus or americanus ). has the gen- 



eral shape of a domestic Goat, but appears sturdier 

 and shorter-necked in consequence of its rich, long 

 fleece, though the body itself must be considered 

 slender. The head is elongated, the eye is large, and 

 the ears are moderately large and sharply pointed. 

 The short tail is bushy on the upper surface and 

 the sides ; the legs are sturdy and look still more 

 so because of their profuse covering of hair. The 

 hoofs, the upper parts of which are covered with 

 wiry hair, do not differ materially from those of wild 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. — 



shaped much like that of a domestic Goat, bu 

 are very lively, agile and wary animals. {Afh 



The Natural Ene- The Buffalo has enemies which 

 mies of the might prove fatal to it only in India 

 Buffalo. an d perhaps in Persia. It is prob- 



ably rarely the case that a pack of Wolves attack a 

 Buffalo in the Danube country, and then the animal 

 must be either debilitated or fatigued if they are to 

 be successful. The conditions are similar in India, 

 though there the tame Buffalo encounters the same 

 enemy as the wild one, namely the Tiger. It is true 

 that this formidable beast of prey secures an occa- 

 sional victim from among the Buffaloes, but it seems 

 to hold equally true that a herd of Buffaloes are able 

 to invariably rout any Tiger. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 



On the high mountains of North America there 

 lives a Horned Animal which deviates so consider- 

 ably from its family relations in the formation of 

 its horns, that we recognize in it the representative 

 of a distinct sub-family, the Aplocerinae. It was 



Goats. The fleece is uniformly white all over the 

 body and consists of a long, hard outer coat and a 

 fine, long, straight, woolly inner fur, the two kinds 

 of hair occurring singly in some and together on 

 other parts of the body. On the face and forehead 

 appears nearly exclusively the thick, fine, curly 

 wool; on the neck, abdominal surface and thighs 

 both kinds of hair are found; on the nape and sides 

 of the neck, back, tail and in the mane-like covering 

 of the throat, breast, shoulders and front part of the 

 hams the wool is entirely absent. On the back of 

 the head there is a thick, long tuft of hair, which 

 falls down on all sides and merges into the mane of 

 the upper part of the neck and back. From the 

 chin and lower jaw the rich beard hangs down in 

 thick curls, which look as if they were intentionally 

 divided and artificially twisted. The neck is covered 

 by a drapery of long hair, which falls down over the 

 shoulder-blade and is continued into a kind of mane 

 on the shoulders and thighs and nearly envelops the 



