396 APPENDIX A 



With the recollection of the goats of Joura fresh in my 

 mind, I have made it my business to again examine the 

 specimen labelled C. dorcas at the Zoological Gardens in 

 Regent's Park. It is my opinion that it is a genuine specimen. 

 It seems rather small for its colouring, which is that of an 

 adult buck (say about five years old), but this may be the 

 result of a life of captivity.^ 



I am obliged to Mr Lydekker for the suggestion that 

 possibly the true Joura goat may be a local sub-species of 

 G. cegagrus, varying only in the shape of the horn (for I do 

 not attach any weight to the alleged greater length of the 

 hair, after my experience of the severe weather of a Joura 

 winter). This, as Erhardt truly says, "suggests that of a 

 ram." In one old buck now at Joura the horns hardly rise 

 at all, but twist outwards in a direction almost horizontal 

 with their first processes. 



If this theory be rejected, we are driven back on one of two 

 others, viz. : — 



(1) The goats of Joura are simply and purely domestic 

 goats run wild, which in the process of time have developed a 

 constant type exactly resembling, except in horn-formatidn, 

 the Capra cegagrus. Or, 



(2) The goats of Joura are a cross-bred race between the 

 original C. cegagrus of the island and the domestic goat 

 (C. hircus). 



To take the latter hypothesis first. At Antimilo we find a 

 race of wild goats which can be proved to be so produced. 

 We find there that in such a race we have — 



(a) Horns generally speaking of G. cegagrus type, but 

 turned out at the tips only, skull and horn -cores being un- 

 altered. 



(b) Violent differences in colour — black goats, white-marked 

 goats, &c., being fairly common. 



(c) In my opinion, a more " goaty " appearance, in the does 

 particularly, than in those of Joura. 



The first two of these points are certain, and incapable of 

 denial. The odd-coloured buck to which I have referred as 

 being at Joura may even be a " sport " of colour, but is more 

 probably referable to a recent cross with the domestic goats 



^ See note, page 395. 



