GOATS. 45 



Himalayan species being seldom found lower than from 12,000 to 

 16,000 feet above the sea, climb with great facility, and are of all 

 game the most wary and difficult of approach. It is almost impos- 

 sible to ascertaiu now which of the Wild Sheep represent the 

 ancestral stock from which the domestic races have descended. 

 Probably, as in the case of oxen and dogs, they have a mixed 

 origin from several distinct wild species. 



The Goats are distinguished from the Sheep by their laterally 

 flattened horns, which are placed more upright on the head arid 

 curve nearly directly backwards, often almost touching each other 

 at their tips, by their long beards, shorter and less thickly-haired 

 tails, and their strong, disagreeable odour. The Wild Goat 

 (Capra agagrus), of the mountains of South-western Asia (Cases 53 [Cases 

 and 54), is certainly the ancestor of our common domestic animal, & 54 'J 

 which is in some respects degenerated, being much smaller, and 

 possessing horns not half the size of those of the wild stock. The 

 specimens in the Case were obtained in the Taurus Mountains of 

 Asia Minor, and on Mount Ararat. 



The other Wild Goats, such as the Wild Goats of the Caucasus [Cases 45, 

 (Capra caucasica and pallasii), the Pyrenean Thar ( C. pyrenaica) , 

 and the Ibexes of the Himalayas, Alps, and Pyrenees, are exhibited 

 in Cases 45, 61 to 66. 



The next group is that of the Antelopes and Gazelles (Cases 67 [Cases 

 to 83), distinguished by their light build, bright colours, and 

 slender arid variously curved horns. They are found in their fullest 

 development in Tropical Africa, more than three fourths of the 

 species being restricted to that continent. As might be expected 

 from this fact, they are all peculiarly suited to life in open plains 

 and deserts, being very swift of foot, and, as a rule, of such a 

 colour as to harmonize well with their general surroundings. 



Of the Antelopes exhibited, too numerous and too closely allied 

 for a detailed description here, the following may be noted : 



The Elands of Central and South Africa (Oreas), the largest of 

 the group, and formerly acclimatized in this country, are placed in 

 a separate case in the Saloon. 



The beautiful Lechee Antelope (Kobus lechee) . (Cases 67 and 68.) 



The Water-Buck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) (between Cases 63 and 

 66), and the Sing-Sing from Abyssinia (Kobus defassus) (between 

 Cases 67-70). 



