8 THE GOAT. 



taken young, they are tamed with facility, and adopt the 

 habits of the domesticated flock. They breed with the tame 

 race, when kept together ; and it is an old opinion of the 

 shepherds of the Pyrenees and Alps, that Bouquetins some- 

 times come down from the higher mountains and mingle with 

 the females of the flock. The offspring of these supposed 

 unions are said to be larger and more robust than the com- 

 mon Goats, and are selected by the shepherds to be leaders 

 of the flock. 



The CAUCASIAN IBEX, inhabiting the mountains of Taurus 

 and the Caucasus, so nearly resembles the Alpine Ibex, in 

 habits, colour, and form, that there seems to be no sufficient 

 reason for regarding it as specifically distinct. The princi- 

 pal divergence is in the horns ; but how greatly the horns of 

 the ruminating tribes vary with age and place, is known in 

 other cases ; and it is altogether probable, that the Ibex of 

 the Caucasus is no other than the Ibex of the Alps of Eu- 

 rope : and the same remark applies to the Ibex of the Ura- 

 lian mountains, termed Siberian. If future observation shall 

 shew that these species are identical, then the Ibex must be 

 characterized as having a surprising range of country. He is 

 an inhabitant of most of the great mountain ranges of Asia 

 and Europe, stretching from the Pyrenees to the Caucasus, 

 and thence, it may be believed, eastward to the snowy heights 

 of central Asia, and northward, by the Uralian and other 

 mountain chains, to Siberia and the Sea of Okotsk. 



But Africa, where the forms of animal life present them- 

 selves under a new aspect, possesses likewise its mountain 

 Goats. The NUBIAN or ABYSSINIAN IBEX, has been found 

 at the eastern termination of that prodigious chain of moun- 

 tains, which, more or less continuously, seems to intersect 

 the continent from east to west. It is believed, but upon 

 doubtful grounds, that the same species is found in the moun- 

 tains of Arabia. The Abyssinian Ibex is described as being 

 larger than the Ibex of Europe ; as having little beard, but 

 a ridge of long hairs on the throat and sternum, and a dark 



