374 THE WILDGOAT, &c. 



common domeftic goat of Europe ; 2. the cha- 

 mois ; 3. the wild goat. He allures us, that 

 none of thefe animals are natives of America, 

 but have been tranfported from Europe ; that, 

 like the fheep, they have degenerated and be- 

 come fmaller in this new country ; that the 

 wool of the fheep is changed into hair as coarfe 

 as that of the goat ; that the wild goat feems to 

 be a baflard race, &c. Hence we are led to 

 believe, that the fmall goat with eredt horns, 

 and crooked at the points, which Linnaeus faw 

 in Holland, and was faid to have come from A- 

 merica, is the chamois of Jamaica, that is, the 

 European chamois degenerated and diminifhed 

 by the climate of America ; and that the wild 

 goat of Jamaica, called the baflard ivild-goat 



by 



for it lofes that rancid tafle which it naturally has in Europe. 

 A kid is generally thought as good, if not better, than a 

 lamb, and is frequently ferved up at the tables of all ranks. 



Capra III. cornibus nodofis in dorfum reclinatis ; Linn. 

 Syji. Nat. .... The ballard ibex. 



This fpecies feems to be a baltard fort of the ibex goat ; it 

 is the molt commond kind in Jamaica, and efteemed the belt 

 by molt people. It was firft introduced there by the Spa- 

 niards, and feems now naturalized in thefe parts. 



Ovis I. cornibus comprelfis lunatis ; Lbin. Syft. Nat. The 

 fheep. Thefe animals have doubtlefs been bred in Jamaica 

 ever fince the time of the Spaniards, and thrive well in every 

 quarter of the iiland ; but they are generally very fmall. A 

 iheep carried from a cold climate to any of thole fultry re- 

 gions, foon alters its appearance ; for, in an year or two, in- 

 ftead of wool, it acquires a coat of hair like a goat. The 

 civil and natural hiftory of Jamaica, by Patrick Bro r xn, M. D. 

 chap. 5. feci. 4. 



