3/2 THE WILD GOAT, &c. 



that he /aw in Holland two animals of the goat- 

 kind, of which the one had very ihort, thick 

 horns, lying almoit flat on the fkull j the horns 

 of the other were creel, and bended backward 

 at the points, and its hair was fliort. Thefc a- 

 nimals, though they feemed to be more remote 

 in fpecies than the chamois and common goat, 

 failed not to produce together ; which demon- 

 ftrates that thefe differences in the figure of the 

 horns, and length of the hair, are not effential 

 and fpecific characters ; for, as the animals pro- 

 duced together, they muft be regarded as be- 

 longing to the fame fpecies. From this example, 

 it may be concluded, that the chamois and our 

 goat, whole principal differences lie in the form 

 of the horns and the length of the hair, are pro- 

 bably the fame fpecies. 



In the royal cabinet, there is the fkeleton of 

 an animal i which was lent under the name of 



c a pr iconic. 



this fpecies of goat, nor even the common goat, as being ever 

 found in America ; 2. That ail travellers, on the contrary, 

 agree in aiiuring us, that there are three kinds of goats in 

 Africa, a large, a middle, and a fmall kind ; 3. That we have 

 feen an animal, which we received under the name of the 

 African Buck, and of which we have given a figure, that re- 

 fembled fo much Linnaeus's defcription of the capra cornibus 

 ieprejfist &c. that we considered it to be the very fame ani- 

 mal. For thefe reafons, we are entitled to aihrm, that this 

 fmall goat is an original native of Africa, and not of America. 

 Capra cornibus ereclis, apice recurvis. Magnitude haedi 

 hire; unius anni. Pili breves, cervini. Cornua vix digitum 

 longa, antrorfum recurvata apice : Haec cum praecedenti 

 ccibat, et pullum npn diu fuperltitem in vivario Cliffortiano 

 producebat. Faoies utriufque adeo aliena, ut vix fpeciem 

 (em at diveriiffimam, argueret ; Linn. Syjl. Nat. p. 96. 



