CAPEA, 503 



Distribution. The hills and mountains of South -\^•esteru Asia, 

 from the Caucasus to Sind. Formerly common in the Grecian 

 Archipelago. Within Indian limits, this wild goat is found on 

 the barren hills of Baluchistan and Western Sind, but not east 

 or north-east of the Bolan Pass and Quetta, as it is replaced by 

 C. falconeri. Specimens of a wild hybrid between the two were 

 obtained by the late Sir O. B. St. John on Takatu near Quetta. 

 This goat, which does not occur east of the Indus, is found near 

 the sea-level in Sind and Baluchistan, but ascends to 12,000 or 

 ] 3,000 feet in Persia. 



Habits. The wild goat of Sind and Baluchistan inhabits barren 

 rocky hills in herds of varying numbers, keeping much to cliffs and 

 crags. It is very active, and leaps with wonderful precision from 

 one ledge to another on the face of a precipice, having like other 

 goats, as Hutton has pointed out, a peculiar power of stopping 

 short and balancing itself on a very small foothold after a leap up 

 or down. Hutton also states that he has seen a male of this goat, 

 kept tame, save itself when it has made a false step by falling on 

 its horns. 



One or two kids, sometimes, it is said, three, ai'e produced at a 

 time, about May in the Caucasus, but I believe earlier in Sind, for 

 I saw a very young animal captured in the Khirthar range on 

 March 11th. 



The true bezoar, formerly famous in Europe and still regarded in 

 Persia as an antidote to poison, and as a remedy in many diseases, 

 is a concretion found in the stomach of this goat, which was known 

 to the older Eui'opean writers as Pazen or Pasen, evidently a cor- 

 ruption of the Persian name. The Capra bezoartica of Linnaeus 

 was doubtless intended for this species, although the description 

 cannot be recognized. The subject is fully discussed by Danford. 



There can be no doubt that 0. (pgagrus is one of the species, and 

 probably the principal, from which tame goats are derived. 



348. Capra sibirica. The Himalayan Ibex. 



Capra sibirica, Meyer, Zool. Annal. i, p. 397 (1794) ; BIyth, Cat. 



p. 176 ; Jerdon, Mmn. p. 292 ; Blanford, Yark. Miss., Mam. p. 86 ; 



Scully, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 208 ; Aitchison, Tr. L. S. (2), Zool. v, 



p. 64; JF. Sclater, Cat. p. 14.3. 

 Himalayan ibex, Blyth, P. Z. S. 1840, p. 80. 

 Capra ibex, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. x, p. 913, xi, p. 283, 7iec Linn. 

 Capra sakeen, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 283 (1842). 

 iEgoceros skyn, Wagner, Schreh. Sdugeth. Svpp. iv, p. 491 (1844). 

 Capra biuialavana, Schinz, Syn. Mam. n, p. 463 (1845) ; Adains, 



P. Z. S. 1858, p. 523. 

 Ibex sakin a7id sibirica, Hodgson, J. A. S. B. xvi, p. 700. 



Skin or Sakin (5* , Dabmo or Danmo 5 ; Ladak ; Kail, Kashmir ; 

 Tangrol, Kulu ; Buz, Kunawar ; Skiu, Balti. 



Build rather heavy, legs short. Male with a profuse beard 

 confined to the chin, and with a ridge of coarse dark hair along the 

 back. Hair coarse and brittle, with, in winter, dense soft woolly 

 underfur (pashm or tiis). 



