308 FAMILY CAPRID^J ; IBEX, SHEEP. 



long down the steep rocks or abrupt precipices. It is also said 

 that the Ibex will precipitate itself fearlessly down precipices, 

 always falling on the horns, the elasticity of which secures it 

 from injury. Several distinct species are found among the 

 mountain-ranges of Africa and Asia ; most of them closely 

 resembling each other in structure and habits. One of the hand- 

 somest is the Jeinlah Ibex, an inhabitant of the Himalaya 

 mountains. Its height is thirty-three inches ; its head is finely 

 formed, full of beauty and expression, and without the least 

 vestige of a beard ; and its horns are peculiarly massive at the 

 base. It lives solitarily or in small herds ; and though bold and 

 pugnacious, it is easily tamed. 



274. The Sheep is the animal of whose subjection to Man 

 we have the earliest notice ; " Abel was a keeper of sheep." 

 Consequently, we must look to Western Asia as the original 

 habitation of the race ; and possibly some wild species, from 

 which it descended, may still exist on the slightly-explored plains 

 and table-lands of that region. That this animal should have 

 become greatly changed in its characters from the original stock, 

 is not to be wondered at ; for of all our domesticated animals, it 

 is probably the one in which the influence of external circum- 

 stances shows itself most evidently. Thus, the finest South- 

 down Sheep imported from Britain into the West India Islands, 

 become quite lean in the course of a year or two; and their thick 

 woolly fleece is replaced by a covering of short, crisp, brownish 

 hair. It has been noticed as a character distinguishing the 

 domesticated sheep from all wild species at present known, that 

 the tail in the latter is always very short, whilst the domesticated 

 breeds generally, if not always (when unmutilated), possess tails 

 which nearly reach to the ground. In the Egyptian and Syrian 

 sheep, this appendage often acquires an enormous size, sometimes 

 attaining a weight of 70, 80, or even 100 Ibs. ; and in order to 

 prevent inconvenience to the animal, it is not unfrequently sup- 

 ported upon a sort of little cart. Now although there are several 

 instances, in which domestic animals lose part or the whole length 

 of the tail possessed by their original wild stocks, there are none 

 in which an originally short tail has been converted into a long 



