WILD SHEEP AND GOATS 



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of the true Goats ; the eye-sockets are not so pronounced, and the 

 horns are comparatively short and about the same size in both sexes. 

 What then, it may be asked, distinguishes a Sheep from a Goat? 

 They certainly differ in form, clothing and habits, but the matter is 

 not thus easily disposed of, for whilst domestic Sheep have a woolly 

 coat known to every one, Wild Sheep, as we have already seen, do 

 not possess one, and if domestic Sheep are given their unrestricted 

 liberty in a hot country, and allowed to return to a wild state, in 

 course of time the fleecy coat of wool is exchanged for one of hair, 

 and thus the animal resembles a Goat. In some cases, of course, 

 the horn is a distinguishing feature, but here again care is necessary 

 before it is certain that a correct identification has been made. 



Again, the absence or presence of a beard may prove useful as a 

 means of identification, but whereas some Goats and Sheep possess 

 beards and others do not, care must be exercised also on this score. 

 True, some kinds of Sheep have only slight beards, but they are such 

 as would do infinite credit to some members of the genus homo of my 

 acquaintance ! And so the matter may be summed up in the words 

 of Mr. Protheroe, who writes that "while we place the Sheep in the 

 genus Ovis and ihe Goats in the Capra, we may very well consider 

 that the terms are almost interchangeable, trusting to the descrip- 

 tions of the various selected animals to afford us the few safe means 

 of identification." 



To return to the Tahr, this animal is at once distinguished from 

 any others by the structure of the black horns, "which have their 

 lateral surfaces flattened and shelving regularly up to the sharp and 

 beaded keel on the inner front border ; they diverge regularly from 

 their bases, at the same time curving sharply backwards, with a 

 slight inward inclination at the tips." The general colour of the 

 hair is dark or reddish-brown. It is 'short on the head, but 

 more lengthy on the body; indeed in old bucks it becomes so long 

 on the neck, chest and shoulders as to form a long shaggy mane 

 reaching below the knees. The animal has a very dark face and is 

 also dark on the front of the limbs ; the young are a uniform greyish- 

 brown, whilst kids are stated to be quite pale in colour. The female, 

 it is most interesting to note, is quite different from every other kind 

 of Goat or Sheep by possessing four teats instead of two, although 

 another species of Tahr is now known which has the more usual 

 number. 



Standing somewhere about three feet high at the shoulder (the 



