24 CLU ADRUPEDS. 



feparated : they live between twenty and thirty years. Their fle^i is 

 good. The chamois has fcarce any cry ; at moft a kind of feeble bleat, 

 by which the parent calls its young. But to warn the reft of the flock, 

 ufes a hifling noife, which is heard at a great diftance. This creature 

 X, is extremely vigilant, and has a quick ear, and fcent, and a moft piercino- 



eye. When it fees its enemy, it ftpps for a rpoment ; and inftantly flies off. 

 Its fmell difcovcrs a man at half a league diftance if to windward. When 

 alarmed, the chamois begins his hiffing note with fuch force, that the 

 rocks and the forefts re-echo to the found. The firft hifs continues as 

 long as the time of one infpiration. In the beginning it is very ftiarp; 

 deeper towards the clofe. Having repofed a moment, he again looks 

 round, and continues to hifs by intervals, till the alarm has fpread to 

 a very great diftance. During this time, it feems in the moft violent 

 agitation ; ftrikes the ground with its fore-foot, and fometimes with 

 both i bounds from rock to rock ; turns and looks round ; runs to the 

 edge of the precipice i and flies with all its fpeed. The hifling of the 

 male is much loudeft and ftiarpeft j it is performed through the nofe i 

 and is properly a very ftrong breath, driven violently through a 

 fmall aperture. The chamois feeds on the beft herbage, and choofes 

 the moft delicate parts of plants, and of aromatic herbs, which grow on 

 the fides of the mountains : drinks little while feeding on fucculenc 

 herbage j chews the cud in the intervals of feeding. This animal is 

 greatly admired for the beauty of its eyes, which are round and fpark- 

 ling: has two fmall horns, of a beautiful black, riflng from the forehead 

 almoft between the eyes, and jetting out forward ; at their extremities they 

 bend a little backward, in a fmall circle, and end in a very fliarp point. 

 The ears are placed near the horns : on each fide of the face are two 

 ftripes of black j the reft being a whitifli yellow. Thefe animals are 

 incommoded by heat, and never found in fummer, except in caverns 

 of rocks, amid unmelted ice, under the fliade of fpreading trees, or of 

 rough and hanging precipices, which keep ofi^ the rays of the fun. 

 They feed early in the morning, and late in the evening. During 

 winter, lodge in the hollows of rocks to avoid the avelanchesy or 

 fnow-rolls, and dig through the fnow for food. They run along 

 the rocks with eafe, and leap from one to another, fo that no 

 dogs can purfue them. They mount or defcend in an oblique di- 

 redtion ; throw themfelves down a rock of thirty feet, and alight fe- 

 curely on fome excrefcence, or fragment, on the fide of the precipice, 

 which is juft large enough to Ji^eceive their feet : in their defcent, they 



