10 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE GOATS* 



Modem naturalists, as intermediate forms become more numerous, find much difficulty in 

 separating off the Goats (which constitute the genus Copra of earlier authors) from the Sheep (Ovis). 

 In the Goats the horns are flattened from side to side, and rough in front and arched backwards, 

 whilst in the Sheep they are more uniformly cylindrical, turned laterally, curling downwards, and 



BARBARY WILD SHEEP. 



often cork-screwed. A beard is a common addition to the former animal, and a most unpleasant 

 odour is emitted by them. 



The domestic Goat is almost certainly descended from the Paseng, or Ibex, of the mountains of 

 Asia, with little or no admixture of other blood. In it, however, the female is bearded as well as the 

 male, which is not the case with the Paseng. It has been subjugated from time immemorial, when 

 the flesh of the kid was considered a delicacy. Its sure-footedness and its boldness are proverbial, as 

 is its unpleasant odour. The power possessed by the species of ascending precipitate heights is mar- 

 vellous. On more than one occasion it has been recorded contrary to the teaching of ^Esop that 

 whilst two individuals have met on a path too narrow for both to pass, one has lain down in order chat 

 the other might go over its back. With no great bulk of body ; coarse hair of different lengths and 

 tints, springing from out of a mass of much shorter wool ; horns of varying size, but always out-turned 

 &6 the tips ; narrow ears, an almost entirely hair-covered nose ; sight, hearing, and smell all acute ; 

 powerful thick-set legs, and a short tail naked below, it stands its own in mountainous and less civilised 



* The genus Capra. 



