363 THE WILDGOAT,&c. 



we could hardly imagine they belonged to an 

 animal of his fize. The chamois feems to differ 

 from the wild goat, and the common he-goat, 

 by the direction of his horns, which incline a 

 little forward in their inferior part, and bend 

 backward at the point like a hook. But, as we 

 remarked in the hiftory of the ox and fheep, 

 the horns of domeftic animals, as well as thofe 

 of wild animals living in different climates, vary 

 prodigioufly. The horns of our female goat 

 are not entirely fimilar to thofe of the male. 

 The horns of the male wild goat are not very 

 different from thofe of our he-goat : And, as the 

 female wild goat approaches the domeftic kind, 

 and even the chamois, in fize, and in the fmall- 

 nefs of its horns, may we not conclude, that the 

 males of the wild, chamois, and domeftic goats, 

 are only one ipecies of animal, in which the 

 nature of the females is conflant and fimilar a- 

 mong themfelves, but that the males are fubjecl: 

 to confiderable variations? In this point of view, 

 which is not, perhaps, removed fo far from na- 

 ture as may be imagined, the wild goat would 

 be the original male ftock, and the chamois 

 would be the female *■ I fay, that this point 



of 



augentur enlm quotannts donee jam vetulis tandem nodi cir- 

 citer vio-'mti increverint. Bina cornna ultimi increment^ ad 



O 



pondus fedecim aut oclodecim librarum accedunt. . . . Ibex 

 faliendo rupicapram longe fuperat ; hoc tantum valet ut nifi 

 qui viderit vix credat; Stumpfius apud Gejntr t p. 305. 



* The want cf a beard in the chamois is a female charac- 

 ter, which ought to be added to the others. The male cha- 

 mois 



