m 



CAPREA 



CAPRI FOLIACR*. 



two hairy wattles under the chin, and the pretty little Whidaw Goat 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Sykes, in his 'Catalogue of the Mammalia,' 

 obtained by him in Dtikhun (Decoan), notice* Copra Uirou, I. inn. : 

 Bukee, of the Mahrattas. The goaU in Dukliiin are Rauut, stand 

 high on their legs, hare the aide* much compreesed, and are covered 

 with long shaggy hair, which in most is black. Ear* nearly pendent 

 Irides ochrey-yellow or reddish-yellow. Tail always carried erect in 

 movement 



Pennant state* that the Domestic Goat (Copra I/irrtu), inhabits 

 mo*t part* of the world, either native or naturalised, and that it 

 bean all extreme* of weather, being found in Europe as high as 

 Wardhuya in Norway, where they breed and run out the whole year ; 

 but in winter only have, during night, the shelter of hovels. In that 

 Min n they feed on moss and the bark of fir-trees, and even on the 

 logs out for fuel. Pennant quotes Dr. Solander as authority to show 

 that in Norway and West Bothnia their skins formed an article of 

 commerce, and says that these animals thrive equally well in the 

 hottest part of Africa and in India and its islands. It is not, he 

 adds, a native of the New World, having been introduced there first 

 by the discoverers of that continent In Britain the Domestic Goat 

 is become comparatively rare, and even in its strong hold, Wales, it is 

 no longer plentiful. In South Wales a goat is seldom seen, but 

 there are still some wild ones in Glamorganshire. Their flourishing 

 condition in the Principality at one time may be imagined from 

 the size of the horns of the Cambrian he-goat mentioned by 

 Pennant ; they were 3 feet 2 inches long, and measured 8 feet from 

 tip to tip. 



Few animal*, when properly treated, are more useful to man ; and 

 though it never can answer to breed the goat in districts which 

 will carry sheep, in rocky and woody countries it U invaluable. 

 The manufactures from the hair have been alluded to. The pillow of 

 goats' hair that supported the head of the image with which Michal 

 deceived the messengers of Saul when he sought David's life ( 1 Sun. 

 xix. 13-16) will occur to every one; and Pennant thinks that the 

 variety which furnished it was the goat of Angora. In the days of 

 wigs, the hair of the common Domestic Goats of this country was in 

 high request, and the whitest were made of it. The best hair for 

 this purpose was selected from that which grew on the haunches, 

 where it is longest and thickest In Pennant's time a good skin, well 

 haired, was sold for a guinea, though a skin of bad hue, and so yellow 

 M to baffle the barber's skill to bleach, did not fetch above eighteen 

 pence or two shillings. Goata' hair is at present used in the manu- 

 facture of wigs for the dignitaries of the church, and the members of 

 the bar and the bench. The skin, particularly that of the kid, is of 

 high importance to the glove manufacturer ; it is also said to take a 

 dye better than most others. The horns are useful for knife-handles ; 

 and the suet, it is alleged, makes candles far superior in whitenes and 

 goodness to those made from that of the sheep or the ox, and, according 

 to Pennant, brings a much greater price in the market. The flesh of 

 the kid is good. " The haunches of the goat," writes the author last 

 quoted, "are frequently salted and dried, and supply all the uses of 

 bacon ; this by the natives is called C6ch yr wden, or hung venison. 

 The meat of a castrated goat of six or seven years old (which is called 

 Hyfr) is reckoned the best ; being generally very sweet and fat. This 

 makes an excellent pasty, goes under the name of rock-venison, and is 

 little inferior to that of the deer." The medical properties of goata' 

 milk and whey have been highly extolled, and the cheese is much 

 valued in some mountainous countries. 



The odour of the Goat, strong at all times, becomes insufferably 

 powerful in the rutting season (from the beginning of September to 

 November), but this pungent scent is not supposed to be unwhole- 

 some ; and hones are said to be refreshed by it, whence the animal 

 is frequently to be seen about stables. The female brings forth from 

 the latter end of February to the latter end of April, after a gestation 

 of four months and a half, generally two but sometimes three and 

 even four young. The activity with which these animals will securely 

 bound from rock to rock, and the unxhaken firmness with which they 

 will fix themselves on the edge of the highest precipices, are wonder- 

 ful. Pennant say* that when two are yoked together, as was frequently 

 practised, they will, as if by consent, take large and hazardous leaps, 

 and yet so time their mutual efforts as rarely to miscarry in the attempt 

 Nicholas Haaaelgren in his 'Swedish Pan' ('Amo:n. Acad.') states that 

 goats eat 449 plants and refuse 126. The same author states that 

 though they will eat greedily and safely long-leaved water-hemlock, 

 monkshood kills them. Their favourite food consists of the tops, 

 tendrils, and flowers of mountain shrubs and of aromatic herlw ; to 

 this delicate diet was supposed to be owing the salubrity of the milk. 

 The blood was supposed to have its healing properties also : that of 

 he-goat dried is mentioned by Pennant as a great recipe in some 

 families for the pleurisy and inflammatory disorders, and U noticed 

 in Dr. Mead's ' Monita Medica.' A* an enemy to the vine it was 

 sacrificed to Bacchus ; and the subject is prettily touched in many 

 epigrams and verses, both Greek and Latin. The elegant lines of 

 beginning "Rode caper vitem" are familiar to scholars. In 

 that dark and melancholy time when modern witchcraft was supposed 

 to be rife, and when the very absurdity of the alleged fact* seems to 

 have sharpened the belief of the credulous, and increased their eager- 

 i to shed innocent blood, the Uoat figures not only a* the conveyance 



on which the witches flew through the air to their diabolical festivals, 

 but as the shape in which Satan himself often exhibited his person to 

 his votaries. 



There U no doubt that the Domestic Goat will breed with the Sheep. 

 F. Cuvier states that the mule which is the result of the connection 

 participates in the nature of its parent*, and is fruitful, but repro- 

 duces with difficulty. " I have had," says this zoologist, " a similar 

 female mule, which in its form inclined to the sheep, while it leant to 

 the she-goat in its gait and in iU hair (par aes formes tenoit du 

 mouton, et de la chovre par ses allures et ses noils) ; it did not couple 

 till the third year with a goat, and wan fruitful." 



During a visit to Rhnih Germany in the autumn of 1837 Mr. 

 Ogilby learned from Professor Cretzschmar, the well-know editor of 

 the maminalogical part of Dr. KiippeU'a first ' Atlas,' the success of 

 an experiment which the professor had been carrying on for some 

 yean in the neighbourhood of Kraukfort-on-the-Main, to ascertain t Im- 

 possibility of procuring a cross between the Cashmere Goat and the 

 Saxon Merino Sheep. With this intention Professor Cretzschmar had 

 two or three yean ago procured a large Cashmere buck, which was 

 nut into a stable with twelve Merino ewes. For two seasons however 

 hta hopes were disappointed, and it was not till the season of 1836 

 that the desired union took place. During the spring of that year 

 the sheep very freely took the buck, and produced fine healthy lambs, 

 which were, when Mr. Ogilby obtained his information, rather better 

 than a year old. They were kept in a large stable with a number of 

 pure Merinos, which is the usual mode of treating these valuable 

 animals in that part of Germany, where the land U all under the 

 I plough, and there are neither sheep nor grazing farms ; and so closely 

 did they resemble the pure Saxon breed, that it was impossible to 

 perceive any difference in their external character*. 



The species of the genera of Caprca in the British Museum Catalogue 

 are as follows : 



Hcmitragui Jtmlaicta, the Jh&ral or Tehr. This animal inhabits 

 the loftiest mountains of India. 



Kemai Warryato, the Warryato or Jungle Kemas. It is a native of 

 India, and has been called the Wild slnv|> of Tennaaseriui. 



sligoceroi Pyrtnaica, the Pyrenean Tur. It is a native of the Pyre- 

 nees, and is regarded by some as a variety "f the Ibex. 



jB. Caucatica, the Tur, or Zac. It inhabits the Caucasus, and in 

 sometimes called the Caucasian Ibex. 



Copra Ibex, the Ibex, or Stein-Boo. This animal is a native of the 

 European Alps. 



C. Sibirica, the Tek or Takija. It is a native of Siberia, and is fre- 

 quently referred to the Ibex. 



C. HimtUayana, the Sakeen or Skyn. It is also called the Him:il:iy 

 Ibex. Dr. Gray observes that this is not probably distinct from Ibex 

 (Uapra) Sibirica. 



C. (?) kfvicornit, the Smooth-Horned Ibex. It is probably a hybrid. 



C. Nubiana, the Beden, or Jaela. It is an inhabitant of Egypt, 

 Arabia, and Crete. 



C. Valie, the Walie. A specimen is in the Frankfort Museum. 



J/ii-rux .Kyagrut, the Goat 



Fossil remains of the Goat have been found at Walton in Essex. 

 Professor Owen says, on this discovery : " Whether the t'u/n-.r 

 jEguyrtu (llircHt jRgagrui) or the Capra Ibex should be regarded as 

 the stock of the domesticated goat of Europe has long been a question 

 amongst naturalists ; the weighty argument! which may be drawn 

 from the character of the wild species which was contemporary with 

 the Bat primigeniut and Dot longifront in England is shown by the 

 present fossil to be in favour of Capra jBgagrui." (Owen, iiritirh 

 Pottil Afammalt.) 



CAPRE'OLUS. [CERVIDA] 



CAPRE'OLUS, an old name for the tendril of a vine. 



CAPRICORNI. [AMMONITES.] 



i \ 1'IUCORNIS. [ANTII.OI-E*.] 



CAPRIFOLIA'CE.fe, CaprifoUt, the Honeysuckle Tribe, a natural 

 order of Monopetalous Dicotyledons, having an inferior ovary, oppo- 

 site leaves without stipules, and a small embryo lying in a considerable 

 mass of horny albumen. The type of the order is the genus ( Vi/.n- 

 . or Honeysuckle ; the genera that are associated with it in part 

 consist of dismemberments of Lonicera, and in part of plants 1 

 a resemblance to them in habit The genera most dissimilar to 

 C'aprifulium are Sambueiw and Viburnum ; but their characters are 

 more dependent for their dissimilitude upon the shortness of the 

 tube of their corolla, and the manner in which the flowers are 

 arranged, than upon any actual differences of organisation. ' 

 foliaceai differ from Cinchonacaz in little except the want of stipules 

 between the leaves, and consequently there is great resemblance in 

 their sensible properties; their bark being often astringent, their 

 leaves sometimes emetic, and the seeds of Triotttvm perfoliatwn 

 similar to coffee. 



The fragrance of the Honeysuckle is well known. The flowers of the 

 Elder (fSamburut nigra) have a reputation as a in.-<li.-iu;,l agent. The 

 plant dedicated to l.mn.> >i-. the l.inntta borealu, belongs to this order, 

 and is paid to possess <linphoivtir und diuretic properties. 'I'll.- 

 berries of Lonicrractrrulca are a favourite food of t hu Kanitclmtkadales. 

 Kldi rlierry wine is a favourite beverage in some parts of England. 

 The order has 14 genera and about 220 species. 



