Persian Wild Goat 155 



37 inches is the shoulder- height attained by old bucks of the wild 

 goat. 



The present race of the wild goat ranges from the Caucasus through 

 the mountains of Asia Minor and Persia, and in Baluchistan probably 

 intergrades with the Sind race, to which reference has been already made. 

 On Mount Ararat it has been observed at a height of 14,000 feet above 

 sea-level. 



Excellent accounts of the habits ot the wild goat and of wild- goat 

 stalking are given by Mr. C. G. Danford in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society for 1875, by Mr. E. N. Buxton in Short Stalks, and by Mr. Selous 

 in the work already cited. An epitome of some of the leading features 

 mentioned in the first two accounts will be found in IP^/ld Oxen, Sheep, and 

 Goats. 



As an illustration of the difficulty of detecting these animals in their 

 native haunts, a second quotation may be made from Mr. Selous : — 



" Motioning me to sit down," writes the narrator on the occasion 

 referred to, " the old man took a seat beside me, and shading his eye with 

 his hand, eagerly scanned the broken ground above us. Suddenly he 

 uttered the one word ' Gay-Eek ' (wild goats) and pointed eagerly 

 upwards. For some time, however, although my eyes are fairly well 

 trained to see game quickly, I could not make them out ; but presently I 

 saw a small reddish object move across a wall of rock high above us, and 

 soon made out two or three more, and, on looking through my field- 

 glasses, counted six, all apparently ewes, with very small horns. I was 

 still watching these ewes through the glasses, when a fine ram suddenly 

 showed himself He was a little in front of the foremost ewe, and almost 

 immediately sprang across a narrow chasm, and stood in full view on a 

 ledge of rock. He looked somewhat darker than the ewes, being still in 

 his reddish summer coat ; and I could see his horns quite distinctly." 



