618 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Alpine Ibex interbred with the domestic goat in complete freedom 

 and produced fertile crosses. 



Nubian Ibex; Beden 



CAPRA NUBIANA NUBIANA F. Cuvier 



Copra nubiana* F. Cuvier, in Geoffrey and Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mamm., "vol. 3, 

 livr. 50, pi. 347 (399) in Brit. Mus. copy, 1825" (Flower, 1932, p. 435). 

 (Type locality "not known. The species was described in June 1825 from 

 a young male received in the Jardin des Plantes Menagerie, Paris, which 

 had been sent from Egypt by M. Drovetti, French Consul at Alexandria, 

 to H. R. H. the Duke d'Angouleme." (Flower, 1932, p. 436.)) 



FIGS.: Geoffroy and Cuvier, op. cit., pi. 347; P. L. Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 London 1886, pi. 32; Lydekker, 1908, p. 90, fig. 30; Brocklehurst, 1931, 

 p. 81, fig., pi. facing p. 82; Ward, 1935, p. 275, fig. 



This Ibex appears to have suffered severely from persecution 

 throughout its range along the Red Sea littoral, but it has at least 

 one stronghold in the shape of a national reserve about 50 miles 

 southeast of Cairo. 



Knots on the horns more strongly developed and more regularly 

 arranged in this subspecies than in C. n. sinaitica; general color of 

 upper parts brownish or yellowish fawn; muzzle, chin, beard, flanks, 

 chest, nape-tuft, dorsal line, and outer side of legs (except knees and 

 pasterns) blackish brown or black; inner sides of thighs and but- 

 tocks, a streak on the abdomen, inner sides and back of hind legs 

 below the hocks, most of the corresponding surfaces of the forelegs 

 above the knees, and a band above each hoof, white or whitish; 

 horns black (Lydekker, 1908, p. 90). Height of male at shoulder, 

 33 inches (Brocklehurst, 1931, p. 81). Record length of horns on 

 front curve, 4?i inches (Ward, 1935, p. 272). "So far I have been 

 unable to find any constant points of difference between the Ibex of 

 Sinai and those of Upper Egypt and Nubia" (Flower, 1932, p. 436). 



The Nubian Ibex ranges from Lower Egypt to northern Eritrea, 

 and is confined to the east side of the Nile. Old reports from Mo- 

 rocco and Senegambia are undoubtedly erroneous. 



Heuglin (1861, p. 16) speaks of this animal as occurring in nu- 

 merous families on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, south as far 

 as the Tropic of Cancer. 



In 1886 Floyer (1887, pp. 671-680) reported Ibex as rather plenti- 

 ful in the Kittar mountain region, between Kena and the Gulf of 

 Suez. The Bedouin were said to fire from rude shelters at the Ibex 

 coming to water-holes. 



"The natives use dogs for hunting the ibex, which is very common 

 in the Erba Mountains [northwest of Port Sudan] and all along the 



iNot listed by Sherborn (Index Animalium). 



