THE CHAMOIS. 103 



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

 never ; nor does it emit any disagreeable odour except during the rutting 

 season, whilst the effluvium of the goat is always insupportable. 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 iu the moun- 

 tains 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 intrusion on their solitude. TheSteinbock (Capra Ibex) on the con- 

 trary, 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 et produisent 

 ensemble." In this he is mistaken. He adds, however, that he never 

 heard of any example of the kind. " J'avoue cependant que ce fait, le 

 plus important de tous, et qui seul deciderait la question (of homogene- 

 ousness of race), ne nous est pas connu; nous n'avons pu savoir, ni par 

 nous, ni par les autres, si les chamois produisent avec nos chevres ; seule- 

 ment nous le soupconnons." 



It is quite evident then that chamois are not merely ferce capra. It 

 was an originally wild animal, and not one become so by having wan- 

 dered away into the wilderness. Animals wild by nature always retain 

 somewhat of that original state, if taken even at their birth and attempted 

 to be tamed. Groats, though quite at liberty, still like the society of 

 man, and will come skipping to the spot where he is ; indeed from the 

 earliest times the goat is always mentioned as a houseliold animal. The 

 chamois, on the contrary, will flee at the very approach of a human 

 being ; and its terror and natural timidity can never be overcome, even 

 though you may have reared it as a kid, and it has lived among men for 

 years. 



