RUMINANTIA. 177 



tries, even in the Alps. The oriental bezoar («) is a concretion 

 found in its intestines. 



The Goats, and our domestic species (Capra hircus, L.) vary in- 

 finitely in size, colour, and in the length and fineness of the hair ; in 

 the size of the horns, and even in their number. The Angora Goats 

 in Cappadocia have the softest and most silky hair. Those of Thibet 

 are renowned for the admirably fine wool which grows among their 

 hair, with which the celebrated Cachemires are manufactured. There 

 is a race in upper Egypt with short hair, convex chanfrin, and pro- 

 jecting lower jaw, which, possibly, is hybrid. The Goats of Guinea, 

 called Mambrines, and of Juida, are very small, the horns inclining 

 backwards. All these animals are stout, capricious, and fond of 

 wandering ; sensible of their mountain origin, they prefer dry and 

 wild places, feeding on coarse grass, and shoots of young trees. 

 They do much injuryto the forests. The kid only is eaten, but their 

 milk is useful in several diseases (6). The female can produce at 

 seven months ; her period of gestation is five, and she generally has 

 two kids at a birth. 



C. ibex, L.; Buff. XII. pi. xiii; Schreb. CCLXXXI. (The 

 Ibex). Large horns, square in front, marked with transverse and 

 prominent knots. It inhabits the most elevated summits of the 

 highest ranges of mountains in the whole of the old continent. 



C. caucasica, Guldenst., Act. Petrop. 1779, II. pi. xvi, xvii; Schr. 

 CCLXXXI. B. (The Caucasian Ibex). Distinguished by its large 

 triangular horns, obtuse, but not square in front, and knotty like 

 those of the preceding. The two species mix with the domestic 

 goat.* 



Ovis, Lin. 



Sheep have their horns directed backwards, and then incline spirally, 

 more or less forwards ; the chanfrin is generally convex, and there is no 

 beard. They are so slightly entitled to a generic separation from the 

 goats, that with the latter they produce mongrels capable of reproduction. 

 As in the goats, there are several wild races or species very nearly allied. 

 Ov. ammon, L. ; Pall. Spic. XI. i ; Schr. CCLXXXVIII. (The 

 Argali of Siberia). The male of which has very large horns, with 



* Add the Bouquetin d'Ethiopie, F. Cuv. Mammif. — The African Maned Ibex, 

 Tachhaitse, S. Daniels, Afric. Scenery, pi. xxiv. 



J^° (a) The oriental bezoar is a greenish-black concretion, formed of concentri- 

 cal strata, and is generally found to he a deposit surrounding a small bit of rice- 

 straw as its nucleus. The bezoar, called the western, is found in the stomach of a 

 South American species of camel. Bezoar stones were formerly in vast repute as 

 antidotes against poisons, and were objects of superstitious veneration. — Eng. Ed. 



j^° {b) Goats' milk owes its peculiar odour to an acid, which is blended with it, 

 and its great repute as nourishing food for children and weakly persons, to the large 

 proportion of caseous matter which it contains. The colour of the goat's hair ap- 

 pears to be connected with the flavour of the milk, for, in the milk of those that are 

 of a deep colour, the flavour is much stronger than in that of goats with lighter hair, 

 —Eng. Ed. 



