ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 623 



This Ibex is still comparatively common in the vicinity of the 

 Dead Sea, and often wanders to the mountains of Ber-Seba. A 

 specimen from the latter area seems to differ from typical sinaitica. 

 (Aharoni, 1930, p. 328.) 



The animals are found "on rocky mountains around the Dead 

 Sea, in the Negeb and in Sinai. . . . Occasionally they may be 

 found even near Jerusalem. They live usually in small troops led by 

 an old male .... The Beduins of the desert mountains hunt them 

 and the wide distribution of modern rifles is one of the main reasons 

 for their decrease. The long period of extreme dryness, which we 

 are experiencing at present, has been another reason for the diminu- 

 tion in their numbers. They still inhabit the steep mountains near 

 Engeddi as in Biblical times." (Bodenheimer, 1935, p. 112.) 



Prof. Bodenheimer writes more recently (in Hit., March, 1937) 

 that this Ibex is officially protected in Palestine as well as in Sinai. 

 But its remote habitat and the bitter armament of the Bedouins 

 prohibit any real enforcement of the laws. 



In Sinai "ibex became extremely scarce after the War, as every 

 Arab in the Mid-East had obtained possession of at least one modern 

 rifle and unlimited ammunition. To protect the few remaining speci- 

 mens, keepers were appointed to guard six of the most important 

 mountain ranges in the south, the sale of ... ibex meat was pro- 

 hibited, and rifles and ammunition were confiscated." (Jarvis, 1935, 

 p. 16.) 



Jarvis also says (1932, pp. 201-202) : "In the summer the Arabs 

 constructed hides round the water-holes [in Sinai] and shot them 

 as they came down to drink. . . . What really put an end to the 

 wholesale slaughter was the running low of the stock of ammunition, 

 and the deplorable state of the Arab rifles after a few years' neglect." 



[The South Arabian Ibex (Capra nubiana mengesi Noack) occurs 

 in southern and southwestern Arabia, and to an undetermined dis- 

 tance toward the northwest. In 1915 Carruthers (p. 33) regarded 

 it as plentiful. Later information is lacking. It appears to be almost 

 unknown to European hunters.] 



% Abyssinian Ibex ; Wali 



CAPRA WALIE Riippell 



Capra walie Riippell, Neue Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abyssinien gehorig, 

 Saugethiere, p. 16, 1835. ("The highest rocky mountains of Abyssinia, 

 ... in the Provinces of Simien and Go j jam"; type locality restricted 

 by Lydekker (1913c, vol. 1, p. 156) to "mountains of Simien, Abyssinia.") 



FIGS.: Riippell, op. dt., pi. 6; Lydekker, 1908, p. 93, fig. 31 ; Selous, 1914, pi. 63; 

 Maydon, 1932, pis. 51, 55, 57; Ward, 1935, p. 270, fig.; Field Mus. News, 

 vol. 7, no. 2, p. 3, fig., 1936. 



