256 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



WEIGHT AND SIZE. 



The strength of the goat is enormous and while its weight is 

 far greater than one would at first suppose, it is a matter about 

 which we have little definite information. An average specimen 

 from the Cascade Mountains appears to weigh about 150 pounds. 

 A six-year-old goat killed near Skagway, Alaska, showed an 

 actual weight of 329 pounds. A much smaller animal killed at 

 the same time and probably a female, weighed 250 pounds. 

 Large goat from the main Rockies, in British Columbia and 

 Schesley Mountains, have been estimated to weigh as high as 

 350 and 400 pounds. Mr. Baillie-Grohman publishes an account 

 of a full grown male goat captured near Deerlodge, Montana, 

 which was weighed after its capture and '' was found to turn the 

 scales at 480 pounds ! " This, however, must be an error. 



The size of the goat is emphasized by the long and shaggy 

 coat, which at the shoulders rises in a liump. This, taken in 

 connection with the low-carried head, gives the animal the ap- 

 pearance of a pigmy bison. Careful measurements of goat are 

 hard to obtain, but authentic figures which were taken by Mr. 

 Stone, of four goat killed in August, 1902, in the Schesley Moun- 

 tains, British Columbia, are to be found at the end of this article. 



HORNS.* 



The horns of the female are slightly longer and much more 

 slender than those of the male. A little over eleven inches ap- 

 pears to be the extreme limit of horns for the male. The long- 

 est horns known are from British Columbia, attaining a length 

 of something over ten inches up to an extreme measurement of 

 eleven and one-half, which appears to be the record. The horns 

 from the Bitter Root Mountains average at least an inch shorter, 

 as do those from the coast ranges in the United States. Any 

 horn measuring over nine inches is to be considered of good size 

 and anything over ten inches is very exceptional. All measure- 

 ments of horns and antlers are subject to considerable variation, 

 owing to the material of the tape and zeal of the man holding it 

 and this must be taken into consideration in the measurements 

 of record horns. In the measurement of the basal girth of sheep 

 horns a variation of as much as an inch has been found to occur 

 in the recorded size of the same horn taken by different persons, 

 all quite conscientious in their efforts to be accurate. 



* Measurements of horns are given at tin- end of tliis paper. 



