REPRINTED FROM THE 



Annual Hrport of tlje JBeto gork ^oolqstcal H>odet|>. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 



By MADISON GRANT. 



THE white or Rocky Mountain goat shares with the musk-ox 

 the honor of being the least known of the game animals of 

 North America and descriptions of it written even as recently 

 as ten years ago are valueless, as in many cases this animal is 

 confused with white mountain sheep and even with deer. The 

 explanation of this lack of knowledge lies in the extremely re- 

 mote and inaccessible habitat of the goat, which begins in the 

 northwestern United States, among the highest peaks of the 

 Rocky Mountains and of the coast ranges and extends north, 

 through British Columbia, into Alaska. The material in most 

 natural histories, relating to this animal, is scanty and based 

 on very inadequate information, since the opportunity to see 

 and hunt it has not been granted to many. In captivity, we 

 have had, on the Atlantic coast, only eight immature specimens, 

 two in Boston in 1899, two in Philadelphia in 1893, and the 

 four now (1905) living in the New York Zoological Park. One 

 well grown male is living at this time in the London Zoological 

 Garden. 



As a result of this scarcity of direct knowledge, many myths 

 have gathered around this mountain dweller, leading, as usual 

 in our North American game animals, to an abundance of inap- 

 propriate names. The name "goat" is objectionable, but will 

 have to stand until some better term can be found. The Stoney 

 Indians in Alberta use the name "Waputehk," and in Chinook, 

 the universal jargon of the Northwest, the goat is called Snow 

 Mawitch (white deer). Neither of these terms are likely to be- 

 come common. It is not a goat, nor even closely related to them, 

 but is the sole representative on this continent, of a very aberrant 

 group of so-called mountain antelopes, known to science as the 

 Rupicaprince, a Subfamily of the Bovidce. 



THE MOUNTAIN ANTELOPES. 



The Rupicaprince comprise five widely scattered genera, ex- 

 tending from the Pyrenees of Spain, to the Rocky Mountains of 

 the western United States, as enumerated below. 



