CAPRE.. 





Whole structure stronger and more 1 ljfm K 



Limb, thicker and mot* rigid. 

 Hooti higher uul man siiH 

 False book wu dnelvDad. . 

 Haart fiMlltr MM! finer. 

 Facial line rtnuitht. 

 Ban (barter and rounded. . 



Tail short, fiat, nude below. . 



Witben htf her than croup. 

 Fore legs stronger than hind. 



. Feebler and me 



. Lower and le so. 



. Kvuieaeent. 



. Longer and heavier. 

 Cb.fTron arched. 

 Longer and pointed. 



' f Longer, loss depiesscd, and half nude 



I only. 



. Croup higher. 



. Fore and hind equal. 



. Nolao. 



^OT^ Not ao. 



MOM moiter, with nare* ahort and 1 ^ moUt) , ongCT> ad narr0 wer. 



Horn* of medial Ue, keeled, and i Honu rerjr large, not keeled, and 

 turned upwarda. . . . . / turned to the aide*. 



Ere darker and keener. . . . Paler and duller. 



Hair Ion* and unequal Short and equal. 



Back arched. Back straight. 



Bean change of elimaU well. . . Bean it Ut 



I. eminent!? eurioua, capricious, and J u lncariou ^ , uld mnd timi A. 

 confident. . . . . > I 



Barks tree* with its horns, feeding on \ Does not bark trees, and U leas addicted 



the peel and on aromatic herbs. . . 



In fighting, rears itself on It* hind leg*, 



and leu the weight of its body fall 



on the adversary. 



to aromatic*. 



In Hunting, runs a tilt, adding; the 

 force of impulse to that of weight. 



In describing the wild sheep, Mr. Hodgson observes that the horns 

 re inserted high above the orbits on the crown of the forehead, touch- 

 ing nearly at the bane with their whole depth, and carrying the frontal 

 bones very high up between them, the parietals being depressed in an 

 equal degree. The goat's skull has, he states, the same form, but less 

 strikingly developed ; and he seems to think that this form of the 

 skull would afford a just and general mark to separate Oru and Capra 

 from Cenut and Antilope, remarking that there is a gradation of cha- 

 racters in this respect among the Antelopes tending to the Caprine 

 type in their general structure. Mr. Hodgson thus concludes : " The 

 goat and sheep have in common hair and wool ; no beard ; no subor- 

 bital sinuses ; evanescent muzzle ; no inguinal pores ; horns in contact 

 at the top of the head; knees and sternum callous; angular and 

 transversely wrinkled horns ; striated ears ; two teats only in the i 

 females ; horns in both sexes ; and, lastly, incisors of precisely the 

 same form. Of the various diagnostics then proposed by Colonel 

 Hamilton Smith, it would seem that the following only can be per- 

 fectly relied on to separate Oru from Capra .-slender limbs ; longer 

 pointed ear* ; chaffron arched ; narea long and oblique ; very volumi- 

 nous, horns, turned laterally with double flexures. I should add 

 myself the strong and invariable distinction males not odorous, as 

 opposed to the males odorous of the genus Capra. But after all there 

 are no physical distinctions at all equivalent to the moral ones so 

 finely and truly delineated by Buffon, and which, notwithstanding 

 what Colonel H. Smith urges in favour of the courage and activity of 

 aheap, will for ever continue to be recognised as the only essential 

 diagnostics of the two genera." 



Mr. Swainson ('Classification of Quadrupeds,' 1835) places the 

 OoaU (Capra) between the Bovida, or Bovine Family, and the Sheep 



In an interesting paper on the Ruminant ia (' Zoological Proceedings'), 

 Mr. Ogilby, after observing on the first introduction by Illiger of the 

 consideration of the muzzle and lachrymal sinus into the definitions 

 of the genera Antilope, Capra, and Bat, and the application of those 

 principle* by Messrs. Liechtenstein, De Blainville, Desmarest, and 

 Hamilton Smith, in the subdivision of the artificial genus Antilope 

 into something more nearly approaching to natural groups (a reform 

 bat partial in iU operation, and leaving the root of the evil untouched), 

 makes Capridtr, which he places between Motckida and Borida, the 

 fourth family of the order Jt*minantia. 



The following is Dr. Gray's definition of the sub-tribe Caprea : 

 Forehead convex, elevated behind ; chin of males bearded ; suborbital 

 sinus none. Horns erect, compressed, curved backwards and rather 

 outwards, and furnished with a longitudinal keel in front, deeper 

 than wide at the base, and with transverse ridges in front. Hoofs four- 

 aided, scarcely higher before than behind. The skull has a small 

 suborbital fissure, no fossa ; the masaeteric ridge ascending high before 

 the orbit ; the auditory bulla prominent and compressed ; the basi- 

 occipital flat, with its processes developed ; the middle incUors not 

 expanded; the molars without supplemental lobes. The occipital 

 plane of skull forms an acute angle with frontal plane. Cores of horns 

 thick, porous, cellular ; horns seated superiorly on the crest of the 

 forehead, and by their union covering the top of the head. Canine 

 teeth wanting. TeaU two, rarely four. The males have a strong 

 stench ; theybutt, first raising themselves on their hind legs and then 

 coming down sideways against their enemies. 



The following U a synopsis of the genera of Caprtte . 



A. Muffle Naked. 



1. HemHramu. Horns trigonal, compressed, and knotted in front 



2. Kewuu. Horns square, flat, and cross-ridged in front 



CAI'I W 



II Muffli- Hairy. 



8. jBgocero*. Horns roundish, conical 

 4. Capra. Horns square, flat, and nodose in front 

 6. Jlircia. Horns trigonal, compressed, sharp-edged, and knotted 

 in front 



Dr. Gray refers the Common Goat, which must be taken as the type 

 of the family, to the last genus, of which it is the only species. 



Jlircia jBgagrut, the Goat, is'Aif (i *ol ^ but generally used for 

 the female), tftfot, xw (the male), !>.*> (young male kid of three 

 or four months), xW'P" (young female before its first winter), of 

 the Greeks; Caper, and flireia (male), Capra (female), Hadm or 

 Htedut (a young male kid), Jiadulia or Hatdillu* (a very young male 

 kid, or kidling, Ipupot), Caprlla (female kid), of the Romans ; Becco 

 (male), Capra (female), Capretto and Caprettino (kid and kidling), 

 of the Italians; Bouo (male), Ch&vre (female), Chevreau (kid), of 

 the French ; Cabron (male), Cabra (female), Cabrito (kid), of 

 the Spanish ; Cabram (male), Cabra (female), Cabrito (kid), of the 

 Portuguese; Bock (male), Geisz (female), Bocklein (kid), of the Ger- 

 mans ; Bok (male), Giyt (female), of the Dutch ; Bock (male), Geet 

 (female), Kudh (kid), of the Swedes ; Buk, Geedebuk (male), Geed 

 (female), Kid (kid), of the Danes ; Bwch (male), Gafr (female), Mynn 

 (kid), of the ancient Britons. It is the Capra Jlircta of Linnsnus; the 

 Capra Caueatia, H. Smith ; JSgoceroi Capra, Pallas ; Capra jBgagnu, 

 Gmelin. 



The varieties of this animal are very numerous ; and many of these 

 are regarded by writers on natural history as species. 



The Goat affords another example of the uncertainty which clouds 

 the history of our domestic animals ; and to this day zoologists are 

 not entirely agreed as to the species from which it is derived. Pro- 

 fessor Bell, in his 'History of British Quadrupeds,' says,' 

 opinions of naturalists have been much divided respecting the original 

 stock of our domestic goat ; some referring it to the jBgagrnt and 

 others to the Ibex. Buffon appears to have adopted the latter opinion ; 

 but most modern zoologists who have paid much attention to the 

 question, and who have brought to the consideration of it all the helps 

 which recent discoveries in philosophical zoology have furnished, have 

 leaned to the belief that the jEgagrut, or wild goat of the mountains 

 of Caucasus and of Persia, is the true original stock. The zoological 

 characters of this animal certainly bear a closer resemblance to those 

 of the domestic breeds ; and it is worthy of remark that the horns of 

 the Persian domestic goat, though smaller, are similar in form to those 

 of the Paseng, or jSgagnu. The arguments which have been urged 

 from the intermixture of the Ibex with the common goat are at pre- 

 sent of little value, as the facts recorded are very deficient The large 

 joats which are reported to have been brought from the Alps and the 

 Pyrenees to the Garden of Plants in Paris, and which were stated to 

 bave been wild, were probably the progeny of the Ibex with the com- 

 mon goat, as there is no proof of the existence of the true jBgagna in 

 Europe. These were found to be capable of producing offspring, and 

 the details are given by M. Fred. Cuvier with great clearness ; but the 

 old fault still remains the question is not set at rest by these obser- 

 vations ; for we are only informed that they produce offspring, with- 

 out any statement whether they will breed inter Be, or only with the 

 common goat The progeny however were either prematurely brought 

 forth, or lived only a short time in a sick or languishing condition. 

 Surrounded by these doubts, and without the power of satisfactorily 

 solving them, it is better perhaps to leave the question to be decided 

 by future experiment*, should the opportunity ever occur of deter- 

 mining the results of interbreeding between the Ibex, the Jlgagrut, 

 and the common goat, particularly with reference to the mutual fer- 

 tility of the oflspring." 



Buffon's opinion is not very clearly stated, nor is it certain that he 

 had a very distinct idea on the subject Sonini, in his ' Travels in 

 Greece and Turkey,' after speaking of the wild solitudes that surround 

 the Convent of St John at Cape Malacca, in Candia, says : " Covies of 

 red partridges delight in these inaccessible mountains, and there they 

 live in safety. There also are to be seen wild goat*, which leap from 

 rock to rock with admirable address and agility. These wild goats, 

 which are to be met with in the Isle of Candia, and several other 

 islands of the same see, are of the Bouquetin (Copra Ibex, Linn.), or 

 mountain-goat species. The modern Greeks, as has been done by their 

 ancestors, confound the Bouquetin and the Chamoij under the same 

 denomination of Wild Goat The French habituated to the Levant 

 also knew them by no other denomination than that of Chcvre Sauvagc. 

 H is to be presumed, in fact, that Buffon himself imagined that these 

 two animals are not of a species different from that of the domestic 

 eoat" 



Linnams, in his 'Systema Nature),' (12th edition) gives the 

 goat (Capra Ifirctu) an oriental origin ; but seems to consider i 

 as a distinct species. He says of it: "Habitat in Orient* in 

 uiontosis Hircus et Capra cum Hoedo, victitans ramulis ^ varus 

 frondibusque arborum, lichenibus ; hoapitatur in Kuroptt." He 

 does not mention the jEgaynu, but gives the Ibex (Capra Ibex) as 

 a species. 



Gmelin ('Syst Nat,' ed. 13) gives JBgagnu as the first species ol 

 the genus Capra, and it is followed by Ifirctu. Cuvier, in both 

 editions, consider* the Paseng (C. JSgagrui) to be the parent-stock 

 of all the varieties of the domestic goat He adverts to the Paseng 



