35 



UNGULATA 



protected from cold by a coat of short thick wool of a grayish colour. 

 The tail is black ; the ears are pointed and erect ; the hoofs have the 

 outer edges higher than the soles, and are thus admirably adapted 

 for laying hold of the slightest projection or roughness on the face 

 of the rocky precipices it frequents. The Chamois is gregarious, 

 living in herds of fifteen or twenty, and feeding generally in the 

 morning or evening. The old males, however, live alone, except in 

 the rutting season, which occurs in October, when they join the 

 herds, driving off the young males, and engaging in contests with 



FIG. 144. Nemorhcedus crispus. From Sclater, List of Animals in Zoological Society's Gardens, 



1883, p. 151. 



each other that often end fatally. The period of gestation is 

 twenty weeks, when the female, beneath the shelter of a projecting 

 rock, produces one and sometimes two young. In summer the 

 Chamois ascends to the limits of perpetual snow, being only out- 

 stripped in the loftiness of its haunts by the Ibex ; and during that 

 season it shows its intolerance of heat by choosing such browsing 

 grounds as have a northern exposure. 



Nemorhcedus. 1 Horns rounded, gradually recurving, without 

 distinct hook at the end. Suborbital gland small or wanting ; ears 

 large ; skull with a large lachrymal depression, and the premaxillae 

 not quite reaching the nasals. Some nine species, ranging from 

 the Eastern Himalayas to North China and Japan, and southwards 



1 Hamilton-Smith, in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. v. p. 352 (1827). 



