THE CHAMOIS 8i 



kids, which are dropped in April, have by that time attained a 

 sufficient growth to enable them to get their own living under 

 the care of a foster-mother should their own parent accidentally 

 fall a victim to the rifle of a tiro who in the excitement of a 

 stalk has failed to distinguish the doe from the buck ; by no 

 means an easy task, for both have the same sized horns, though 

 triflingly different in shape and position, those of the buck 

 being a little thicker at the base and rising more parallel to 

 each other. Speaking of horns, it may be as well to give the 

 size of the largest of the many hundred heads of which the 

 writer has kept record. The two largest pair are in the 

 collections of the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg at the Hinter 

 Riss, in Tyrol, and in that of Count Arco at Munich, where 

 over seven thousand horns and antlers form a particularly 

 interesting collection. They each measure over twelve inches 

 along the curve and over four inches in circumference at the 

 base ; the former are those of a buck killed by the Duke in 

 Tyrol, the other was bought by the late Count Arco. Eleven- 

 inch heads are still obtainable, though very rare, the largest 

 of my own killing being of that length, and four inches in 

 circumference. A first-rate ordinary buck tapes ten inches. 

 Abnormally long doe's horns are also occasionally seen, but 

 the slimness at the base invariably betrays the sex. In some 

 of the mountain ranges isolated from other homes of chamois, 

 the heads, in consequence of constant inbreeding, assume 

 a certain type by which those versed in antler-lore can 

 recognise their origin. Thus the horns will perhaps be 

 closer together or be wider apart, or have a more or less 

 developed crook, or stand at a slightly different angle than 

 they ordinarily do. The chamois horns of the Epirus, the 

 Carpathians and the Pyrenees are smaller than those found 

 in the Central Alps, and the animals are also lighter. The 

 ' weight of a good buck of the Alps is about 60 lbs., though 

 the writer has killed one in the Dolomites weighing 73 lbs., 

 and Tschuddi mentions an authentic instance of 125 lbs., and 

 another of 92 lbs., the latter buck being killed in 1870 on the 



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