THE CAUCASIAN WILD GOATS, OR TUR 



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mountain animals, but they generally inhabit more rugged and precipitous ground 

 than do the majority of the former; this is, however, not invariably the case, as the 

 Himalayan ibex ranges on to the open country of the Pamirs. All the members of 

 the group are very active and wary animals, and they are characterized by their 

 tendency to browse on the young shoots and leaves of such trees and shrubs as they 

 can reach, whereas sheep mainly confine themselves to grazing. On account of these 

 browsing habits goats are extremely destructive to forests, eating off the tops of the 

 young trees and thus preventing all new growth. 



Geologically, goats appear to be somewhat older than the sheep, remains of 

 certain species having been obtained from the Pliocene rocks of the Siwalik hills in 

 Northern India, while those of others occur in the superficial deposits of the plains 

 of Central Europe. The latter belong to a species of ibex, which is a matter of some 

 interest as showing that during a colder epoch these animals could exist in the low- 

 lands, from whence, with an increase of the temperature, they migrated to the 

 various mountain-chains, where they have differentiated into distinct species from 

 isolation. This explains the occurrence of allied species of wild goats in the Cau- 

 casus and the Pyrenees, and in the Alps and the Sinaitic Peninsula. 



THE CAUCASIAN WILD GOATS, OR TUR (Capra cylindricornis, etc.) 



There occur in the Caucasus range three different kinds of wild goats, locally 

 known as tur, which, as being those approaching most nearly to the sheep, naturally 

 come first. These three kinds are commonly ranked as distinct species, but it may 

 be a question whether they are not really only races of one species exhibiting varia- 

 tions in the structure of its horns analogous to those existing in the Himalayan 

 markhoor noticed subsequently. 



The goat inhabiting the Eastern Caucasus is known as Pallas' s tur 

 (C. cylindricornis} , and is found to the westward of Kasbek and 

 throughout Daghestan. It may be described as a goat with horns like those of the 

 bharal. The horns are 

 black, smooth, and 

 nearly cylindrical, di- 

 rected outward and 

 backward in a some- 

 what spiral manner, 

 with their tips directed 

 inward, and sometimes 

 not separated from one 

 another by an interval 

 of more than a foot. 

 The general color of 

 the animal is light 

 brown, and the height HORNS OF PA ^ AS ' S TUR - 



at the shoulder about three feet. The reddish-brown beard is short and stiff, and 

 curved inward toward the middle of the chin. Another distinctive feature is to 



Pallas's Tur 



