i8o Game of Evirope, W. Sc N. Asia & America 



The foregoing description applies to the typical, or Alpine chamois, 

 but the species is found on most of the mountains of South, Central, and 

 Eastern luirope, including the Pyrenees, the coast mountains of Spain, the 

 mountains of Dahnatia and Greece, the Swiss and Transylvanian Alps, the 

 Apennines, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and the Taurus Range. Although 

 now rare in the Swiss Alps, the chamois is still abundant in the more 

 eastern portions of that range, especially in the districts of Bavaria, 

 Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia ; and in the Caucasus Prince Demidoff 

 speaks of seeing it in herds of forty head, and it appears to be equally 

 numerous in the Central Carpathians, as it probably also is in the Balkans. 

 The limits of the range of the typical Alpine race are not yet ascertained. 



Although, as indicated above, a certain number of chamois habitually 

 frequent the glaciers and open snow-fields of the high Alps, the species as 

 a whole may be regarded as a dweller in the upper zone of the forest-clad 

 portion of the mountains ; and in many parts of the highlands of Bavaria 

 these animals are found on mountains which are mainly within the line of 

 the forest belt. Naturally, however, there is a great local difference in 

 chamois -ground. Where these animals live among thick forest, their 

 pursuit is easier than Highland deer-stalking, owing to the abundance of 

 cover. On the other hand, where they frequent the higher and more 

 open ground, the difficulty of bringing a stalk to a successful conclusion is 

 proportionately increased. Much, too, depends on the degree of wildness 

 displayed by the animals themselves. In districts where the peasants are 

 allowed to shoot at their own free will, the chamois, from being continually 

 hustled about, are as wild and shy as hawks. In the carefully-preserved 

 territories ot large proprietors, on the other hand, where they are only 

 stalked during a brief period in the autumn, the animals are much less 

 difficult to approach. In some districts driving as well as stalking is per- 

 mitted, but in those where the peasants have the right of shooting, the 

 stalk is the only method in vogue. The pairing-season takes place chiefly 



