4 i8 ALPINE EUROPE 



Towards the end of the year the doe brings forth a woolly, goat-like fawn, the 

 size of a cat, which soon runs alongside its mother, and becomes fully grown in 

 five years. Ibex descend to the forests to graze during the night, but such places 

 are never more than a quarter of an hour's journey from the rocks. In the Cogne 

 Mountains ibex will sometimes spend the night in cave-like hollows of the rocks. 

 At sunrise the herd moves upwards, to spend the greater part of the day rumin- 

 ating or sleeping on the highest and sunniest spots. They are best observed in the 

 morning before 6 a.m. and after 4 p.m. when they are down in the forests grazing. 

 Old bucks often remain in the same place for days, if it offer a wide view and is 

 protected from attack, while the does and young generally keep somewhat lower 

 down. Ibex always avoid the society of chamois, although they sometimes 

 associate with herds of goats. In winter they retire to the forests, living on buds, 

 mosses, and fruits, while at other times they feed on grasses, herbs, young shoots 

 of willows, birches, and raspberry bushes. Like goats and chamois, they are fond 

 of licking salt rocks. An ibex will ascend a rock of from 12 to 15 feet high in three 

 jumps, clinging to almost vertical places for some seconds at each spring. In 

 captivity one has been known to stand on the edge of a door and leap from the 

 ground on to a man's head, where it stood firmly ; and another has been seen to 

 run up a wall which had nothing else to which to cling save the places where the 

 mortar had crumbled away. 



The chamois (Rv/picapra tragus) is an inhabitant of the zone of 

 upland meadows bordering the higher forests of the Alps and other 

 European mountains. In structure it is somewhat between a goat and an antelope, 

 and is about the size of a blackbuck. The body is rather short and strong than 

 slender, the back being higher towards the rump than in the middle ; the head is 

 short, and the forehead neai-ly vertical and growing suddenly narrower at the 

 nostrils, which are placed close together, hardly leaving space for the narrow, 

 grooved upper lip. The chamois has slender jaws but strong teeth well adapted 

 for grazing the shortest grass and capable of masticating the driest and toughest 

 food. The teeth begin to change in the second year, but are not fully developed 

 till the fifth year ; in old age the}' turn a brownish colour. Both sexes have nearly 

 vertical cylindrical black horns, which from the base to the middle are covered 

 with numerous transverse rings, and at the tips are smooth and hooked backwards. 

 The horns of the buck are more sharply hooked, and shorter than those of the 

 female. The distance between the horns and their thickness and length are not 

 necessarily distinctive signs of sex, but depend greatly on the different conditions 

 under which the chamois live. The summer dress of the chamois is close and 

 coarse and, except in a few places, only an inch and a quarter long ; the winter 

 coat being three times as long as the summer growth. The middle line of the 

 neck and back is surmounted for the whole of its length by a mane of from 

 8 to 9 inches in length. Chamois-hair is very easily electrified, especially this 

 mane, which is black with a yellowish tint at the tips of the hairs, brown being 

 the prevailing colour of the coat. In spring the Alpine chamois is brownish 

 yellow, but it changes to fawn-colour in summer, the lower part of the body 

 turning to a pale reddish yellow, while the back bears the so-called " eel-stripe," 

 which widens at the upper part of the neck, branching into a dark brown band 



