104 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



I SUBJOIN a few points of difference between the Goat and the Cha- 

 mois. Their skeletons, it seems, are not the same ; for not having 

 myself examined the arrangement of the bones in the two animals, 

 I quote, regarding their formation, from ' Histoire Naturelle, gene- 

 rale et particuliere, avec la Description du Cabinet du Eoi. Tome 

 douzieme. Paris, MDCCLXIV.' " L'apophyse epineuse de la seconde 

 vertebre cervicale differe de celle du bouc, en ce qu'elle est moins 

 haute et presqu'aussi saillante en arriere qu'en avant, ce qui ne se 

 trouve ni dans la gazelle, ni dans le cerf, le chevreuil, etc. ; la branche 

 inferieure de 1'apophyse oblique de la sixieme vertebre n'est pas 

 echancree comme dans le bouc : elle ressemble a celle de la gazelle, 

 du chevreuil, etc." The frontal bone of the chamois, just before the 

 horns, is concave ; that of the goat, convex. The horns of the latter 

 recede ; those of the former animal always advance. The goat's 

 horns too are flat near their base, and wrinkled ; the chamois' are 

 round, and not indented. The goat has frequently a beard, a cha- 

 mois never ; nor does it emit any disagreeable odour except during 

 the rutting season, whilst the effluvium of the goat is always insup- 

 portable. The nose of the chamois is not drawn back like the goat ; 

 consequently the upper lip projects less beyond the nostrils. Its 

 upper teeth advance slightly over the lower ; in the goat they rest 

 exactly on each other. In the chamois there is less depth from the 

 top of the head to the lower jaw than in the goat, which gives the 

 head more lightness and greater elegance of form. But the most 

 decisive proof of the non-affinity .of the two animals is that they never 

 generate together. Although in the mountains herds of goats are 

 constantly wandering about near the haunts of the chamois, no one 

 instance is known of a she-goat having brought forth young which 

 were a cross between the two breeds. The chamois indeed always 

 avoid the places where goats have strayed. They dislike all intru- 

 sion on their solitude. The Steinbock (Copra Iltex) on the contrary, 

 classed by naturalists among the goat genus, cohabits occasionally 

 with the tame animal ; and offspring presenting the peculiar features 

 of such mixed race have been seen not unfrequently in Switzerland. 

 The author cited above says that chamois, when taken young and 

 brought up with the domestic goat, " vraisemblablement s'accouplent 



