THE WILD GOAT, &c. 383 



infallible indications of identity of fpecies. The 

 Greeks, as formerly remarked, did not divide 

 thefe three animals into three diftincl kinds ; 

 and our hunters, who probably never confulted 

 the Greeks, have alfo regarded them as the fame 

 fpecies. Gafton Phoebus *, when treating of 

 the wild goat, points him out under the name 

 of the ivild buck ; and the chamois, which he 

 calls yfarus and f arris, in his eftimation, is only 

 another wild buck. I acknowledge that all thefe 

 authorities amount not to a complete proof: But, 

 when joined to the facts and reafonings already 

 employed, they form fo ftrong a prefumption, 

 with regard to the unity of fpecies in thefe three 

 animals, as leaves no room for hefitation. 



The wild and chamois goats, which I confi- 

 dercd, the one as the male, and the other as the 

 female flock of the goat-kind, are only found, 

 like the mouflon, which is the ftock of the fheep, 

 in the deferts and in the higheft and moft rug- 

 ged mountains. The Alps, the Pyrennees, the 

 Grecian mountains, and thofe in the iflands of 

 the Archipelago, are almoft the only places where 

 the wild and chamois goats are to be found. 

 Though both avoid heat, and inhabit the regions 

 of fnow and froft ; yet they equally avoid the 

 exceflive rigours of cold. In fummer, they dwell 

 on the northern fides of the mountains ; in win- 

 ter, they frequent the fouthern fides, and defcend 



from 



f La vencrie de Gafton Phoebus, p. 6S. 



