62 
confifts‘in the horns, none of them, 
perhaps, except the bouquetin, hav- 
ing a longitudinal ridge, and fome 
of them being even without the 
tranfverfe ridges. But this differ- 
ence is lefs perceptible, in compar- 
ing the bouquetin with the Siberian 
ibex, the ibex with the zxgagrus, 
and the xgagrus with the tame. 
goat. Nor are the horns of the 
Alpine bouquetin fo much weigh- 
tier, longer, and larger, than thofe 
of the above-mentioned animals, as 
to form a certain fpecific diftinc- 
tion. 
But even if this difference fhould 
be ftill greater, it could never be 
admitted as forming a {pecific dif- 
tinétion. For the horns not only 
differ in individuals of the fame 
fpecies, but in the fame individuals 
at different ages. If we were to 
attempt to arrange animals /c/ely 
by their horns, the difcriminations 
would be as endlefs as uncertain. 
But if, in the prefent inftance, the 
Alpine bouquetin and the other fpe- 
cies of the goat genus fhould be ex- 
cepted from this general affertion, 
we have only to add, that M. van 
Berchen poffefles the horns of a 
young one, produced from the union 
of the bouquetin and fhe-goat, that 
are exactly fimilar to the horns of 
the zgagrus, which, as Pallas afferts, 
refemble thofe of the tame goat. 
Climate and nutriment muft have 
a great effect upon the horns of ani- 
mals. The female of the bouque- 
tin has horns’very like thofe of the 
tame goat... It is no wonder there- 
fore, if a long feryitude, an inactive 
life, an’ exchange from the aromatic 
_plants and pure air of the moun- 
tains to a grofs nutriment and a 
moiiter atmofphere, fhould diminifh 
the horns, alter their fhape, fubdue 
ANNUAL REGISTER; 1790. 
the longitudinal ridge, and convert 
the knobs into wrinkles. 
The count de Buffon extends the 
goat genus full further, and. com- 
prehends under it even the chamois 
conjecturing, that the bouquetin is 
the male in the original race of 
goats, and the chamois the female. 
The French naturalift having, at 
the time -when- he defcribed the 
bouguetin, never feen it in a full 
grown ftate, was probably induced 
to entertain this opinion from a faint 
refemblance between the female 
bouquetin and the chamois. But 
there does not feem the leaft foun- 
dation for this, notion,-the chamois — 
being an animal totally diftin& from 
the goats, never coupling with them, — 
and judicioufly clafled by Pallas 
and Pennant in the genus of ante- 
lopes. His conjecture, however, 
that the bouquetin is the original 
fource of all the tame goats, feems 
te be well founded; and has been 
adopted by the greateft part of fuc- 
ceeding naturalifts. And as, ac 
cording to the juft obfervations of 
Pallas, 
nearer than the bouquetin to the 
tame goat in its form_and horns, the 
egagrus may be the link which 
unites the bouquetin and the tame 
goat. May not the egagrus be 
confidered as a race produced from 
the zgagrus. approaches : 
the bouquetin and the fhe-goat, or — 
the goat and -female bouquetin ? 
Pallas alfo conjetures, that the — 
tame goat may poiflibly have been 
propagated from the zgagrus and» 
Siberian ibex, which is allowed by 
mof naturalifts to be the fame as 
the bouquetin; and Pennant. re- 
marks, with no lefs fagacity, that 
the tame goats may be derived from 
both, as we are affured that the ibex 
and fhe-goat wiil produce a fimilar 
offspring. — 
