The Sheep and Goats 



235 



a house, and spend the day there by prefer- 

 ence, though allowed the run of all the premises. 

 The kids are generally two in number; they 

 are born in June. 



The ibex was long one of the chief 

 objects of the Alpine hunter. The Emperor 

 Maximilian had a preserve of them in the 

 Tyrol mountains near the Aachen Sea ; these 

 he shot with a cross-bow when they were 

 driven down the mountains. Sometimes they 

 were forced across the lake. A picture in 

 his private hunting-book shows the Emperor 

 assisting to catch one in a net from a boat. 

 He notes that he once shot an ibex at a 

 distance of 200 yards with a cross-bow, after 

 one of his companions had missed it with a 

 gun, or "fire-tube." When away on an ex- 

 pedition in Holland, he wrote a letter to the 

 wife of one of the most noted ibex-poachers 

 on his domain, promising her a silk dress if 

 she could induce her husband to let the 

 animals alone. In the Himalaya the chief 

 foes of the ibex are the snow-leopard and 

 wild dog. 



THE MARKHOR. 



The very fine Himalayan goat of this 

 name differs from all other wild species. The 

 horns are spiral, like those of the kudu 



Photo by S. G. Payne, Aylesbury, ly permission of the Hon. Waltsr 

 Rothschild. 



YOUNG MALE ALPINE IBEX 



The photograph shows the corrugated horns of the male. 



Photo l>y the Duchess of Bedford] [ Woburn Abbey. 



MALE ALPINE IBEX. 



The finest wild goat of Europe, formerly common on the Swiss Alps, 

 now only on a limited area on the Italian side. 



antelope and "Wallachian sheep. It may well 

 be called the king of the wild goats. A 

 buck stands as much as 41 inches at the 

 shoulder, and the maximum measurement of 

 the horns is 63 inches, or over 5 feet ! It 

 has a long beard and mane, and stands very 

 upright on its feet. Besides the Himalaya, 

 it haunts the mountains on the Afghan 

 frontier. The markhor keep along the line 

 between the forest and snow, some of the 

 most difficult ground in the hills. The horns 

 are a much-prized trophy. 



THE TAHR. 



The TAHR of the Himalaya is a very 

 different-looking animal to the true goats, 

 from which, among other characters, it is 

 distinguished by the form and small size 



