824 



THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



differs from that of a sheep in that the plane of the portion behind the horns meets 

 that of the part in front of the same in an obtuse instead of a right angle, while 

 the profile of the face is very concave, and the occipital region rounded instead 

 of nearly flat. The true goats, or those constituting the genus Capra, are further 

 distinguished by the great length of the horns of the males. These are situated 

 close together immediately above the eyes, and are continued upward at first in 

 the plane of the forehead; the} 7 may be either scimitar-shaped, with a backward 

 sweep, or spiral, and are generally more or less compressed and angulated, while 

 they are frequently ornamented with knobs or knots in front. In the females the 

 horns are much smaller, and set farther apart at their bases. 



SKELETON OF THE IBEX. 



Although the term goat is applied to one American Ruminant, yet goats in the 

 proper sense of the word are exclusively restricted to the Old World. Moreover, 

 these animals are mainly confined to Europe and Asia north of the southern flanks of 

 the Himalayas. It is true, indeed, that one species occurs in Egypt and another in 

 Abyssinia, but the group is quite unknown in the whole of the remainder of Africa, 

 while the species inhabiting the mountains of Southern India is classed in a genus 

 apart from that containing the true goats. There are about ten species of true wild 

 goats, all of which live in herds, although the males sometimes keep apart from the 

 females, and are occasionally solitary. Like the sheep, the goats are essentially 



