156 FEMALE IBEX. 



in districts occupied by the flocks at that 

 season, the bushes and sharp corners of 

 rocks are covered with their cast off wiater 

 coats. The striking appearance of the ibex 

 is chiefly owing to the noble horns which 

 nature has bestowed upon it. In full- 

 grown animals, the horns which curve 

 gracefully over the shoulders are from three 

 to four feet in length along the curve, and 

 about eleven inches in circumference at the 

 base. Very few attain a greater length 

 than four feet, but I have heard of their 

 being three inches longer. Their beards, 

 six or eight inches in length, are of shaggy 

 black hair. The females, light greyish brown 

 in colour, are hardly a thii'd the size of 

 the males, and their horns are round and 

 tapering, from ten inches to a foot in length. 

 Their appearance upon the whole is clean- 

 made, agile, and graceful. 



In the summer they every^^here resort 

 to the highest accessible places where food 

 can be found, often to a part of the country 

 several marches distant from their winter 



