MAMMALS. 



»549 



horns, but even then some of the accounts of " eye-witnesses " must have 

 been deliberate lies. The damage to the horns is explained in a more 

 satisfactory manner. It is caused by the combats of the males in the 

 breeding season. The big-horn ranges from Alaska to California and 

 Arizona and east to the valley of the Yellowstone and the Mauvaise Terres 

 of Dakota. It lives in small herds, the females and young together, 

 while the males go in smaller flocks by themselves. The flesh is highly 

 esteemed. 



Fig. 510. — Big-horn (Ovis montana). 



4«£*^ 



The ibexes and goats — near relatives — are inhabitants of the moun- 

 tain regions of Europe and Asia ; and in the case of the domestic goat, 

 whose omnivorous tastes are made the subject of many a newspaper jest, 

 we meet the same difficulty which has often been mentioned in these pages, 

 — we do not certainly know from what wild stock it sprang. Some think 

 the original stock of Georgian or Persian origin, while others would seek 

 it in a species occurring in the mountains of Cashmere and Tibet. The 

 economic uses of goats need not be enlarged upon ; from their long hair 

 are woven the celebrated shawls of Cashmere, while their hides furnish us 

 with the ' kid ' and Morocco leathers, and their milk is made into a cheese, 



