348 UNGULATA. 



brown, the color always being lighter on the throat, belly 

 and the inside of their legs than elsewhere. They pair 

 in midwinter, and the young. tw r o at a birth, are born in 

 the early summer. The type species is the Alpine Ibex 

 (Capra-ibex). 



With the exception of the Caucassian Tur, and the 

 Spanish Capramontes, all the different races of True Wild 

 Goats are confined to some of the mountainous regions 

 of North Western Africa, and Central Asia. They are 

 strong, agile and sure footed animals, preferring the 

 leaves and small branches of shrubs for food to the 

 richest pasture. 



At one time the Ibex was believed to be the ancestor 

 of all the many breeds of common goats, and later 

 scientists claimed that the Pesang (Capra-aegagrus) was 

 the wild stock from which the type representatives of 

 the domesticated goat were descended ; but the probability 

 is that the common goats were derived not from one but 

 from a number of wild species; for not only do goats 

 of different countries differ from one another, but there 

 often exist in the same country, and under the same 

 climatic and food conditions, races so divergent that it 

 is impossible to believe that they have come down from 

 the same stock. "The Black Syrian Goat, with its con- 

 vex face and udders hanging to the ground, is as different 

 from the other domesticated goats of that country as 

 the Jackal is from the Wolf; and the little goats from 

 the coast of Guinea have been acclimated in America for 

 more than a hundred years, without making the least 

 approach to those carried to the same country at different 

 times from Europe." 



There are several varieties of the Angora Goat, which 

 is noted for the length and quality of the soft silky white 

 hair which covers the whole of the body and the greater 

 part of its legs, and w r hich is of much more value to the 

 manufacturers of fabrics than the short coarse under 

 wool which is beneath it. Some of the skins are used by 

 furriers to make children's sets and baby carriage robes; 

 and at times there is also a demand for Angora fringe 

 or trimming, either dyed or in the natural glossy white 

 color. During the cold season Angora Goats are kept in 

 stables, but throughout the rest of the year are allowed 



