226 



NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Second Series, Phi.tugraph. 6. 



The t)l:)servatioiis collected from various ^•()urces by Air. Madison 

 Grant in his article on the mountain goat, published in the Ninth 



Annual Report of the 

 New York Zoological 

 Society for 1904, in- 

 clude many of the main 

 points in regard to the 

 habits of these animals, 

 and Smith considers 

 Mr. Grant's paper ab- 

 solutely correct except 

 as regards the gland at 

 the back of the horn. 

 This gland in the rut- 

 ting season becomes en- 

 larged, and freely ex- 

 udes an oil which soft- 

 ens the back of the horn, often causing a crease as if the result 

 of wear. It is less developed in females. 



I believe it worth considering whether naturalists should not 

 try to banish the misleading word goat for these animals, and 

 substitute the term " mountain antelope," just as they are trying 

 to banish the misleading word " elk " and introduce " wapiti." 

 The animal is allied to the noble animals the Chamois, Goral, 

 Takin, and Serow of Eurasia, which take their subfamily name 

 Riipricaprincc from the genus Ruf^icapra or chamois. The sub- 

 family is an early, 

 mountain-living offshoot 

 of the Bovid?e. 



Unlike these Old- 

 World forms, which 

 present little external 

 resemblance to the do- 

 mestic goats, our moun- 

 tain antelope certainly 

 has the proportions, the 

 shortness of limb, the 

 beard, the long white 

 hair, the slow move- 

 ments, and the dignified 

 air of the domestic 



" billy," as shown by my observations. It is an extraordi- 

 narily isolated animal, well protected by certain instincts which 



I'li.il.igraph 



