ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 617 



3500 head of ibex . . . , for whose protection there is a special corps 

 of Royal Hunt Guards." 



The Alpine Ibex is also found on the royal hunting grounds of 

 S. Anna di Valdieri and will be introduced into the Stelvio National 

 Park (Laboratorio di Zoologia Applicata a Caccia, in litt., Sep- 

 tember, 1936) . 



Austria. To judge by the horns found, the Ibex occurred in 

 Carinthia very long ago. In Nieder-Osterreich (where it has per- 

 haps been absent throughout historical times) introduction was tried 

 in 1936 in the region of Schneeberg-Rax, but the result is not known 

 as yet. In Salzburg the species was certainly common in former 

 days, and now a colony of about 30 head is found in Bluhnbachtal. 

 In the Tyrol it was generally distributed in the fifteenth century, 

 but was greatly reduced in numbers during the next century, and 

 the last ones were observed in 1706 in the Floitental, a tributary 

 of the Zillertal. Efforts are now being made to reintroduce it in 

 that region. In Vorarlberg the Ibex has been exterminated since the 

 sixteenth century. Here as well as in the Tyrol extinction was due 

 to poaching by the local residents, who superstitiously believed in 

 the medicinal properties of certain parts of the animal. These were 

 considered "sympathetic" remedies against illness and were also 

 used to increase generative faculties, etc. (G. Schlesinger, in litt., 

 March, 1937). 



Yugoslavia. An introduced herd exists on the property of Baron 

 Born at Sveta Ana, south of Loibl Pass on the Carinthian frontier. 

 Before the World War the stock was 38 head, but then became re- 

 duced to 6. This herd is said not to be pure-blooded, but interbred 

 with domesticated goats. (G. Schlesinger, in litt., March, 1937.) By 

 1936 the herd had increased again to about 20 head (M. Hirtz, 

 in litt., November, 1936) . 



Rumania. Remains in the Carpathians indicate that Ibex co- 

 existed with man in prehistoric times (R. J. Calinescu, in litt., Sep- 

 tember, 1937) . 



Extinction through dilution? There is apparently some possi- 

 bility of the extinction of the Alpine Ibex as a purebred species. If 

 the Italian stock (at one time practically the last remnant of the 

 species) is not pure, probably no other stocks of the present day are. 

 In 1886 P. L. Sclater wrote (p. 315) : "Whether the pair of this 

 species presented to us by the late King of Italy in 1862 were really 

 perfectly pure was, I have always thought, a little doubtful; at all 

 events it is well known that the Alpine Ibex breeds freely with the 

 Domestic Goat, and I have seen many such hybrids." Still earlier 

 Schinz had remarked (1838, p. 6) on the long-known fact that the 



