GOATS. 237 
they are ornamented in front with more or less distinct knobs, so that they are 
very like those of ibex, although shorter and thicker. They vary somewhat in 
their degree of outward inclination — being sometimes separated by as much as 
3 feet at the tips—and those in which the outward inclination is most marked and 
the knobs most developed approach nearest to Pallas’s tur. This form is further 
distinguished by the crowns of the lower incisor teeth being wide and rounded. 
If we had only Pallas’s tur and Severtzow’s tur to deal with there would be 
no hesitation in regarding them as distinct species, but the Caucasian tur, 
inhabiting the intermediate area, suggests a passage from the one to the other. 
The habits of these goats are probably very similar to those of the next species. 
THE SPANISH WILD Goat (Capra pyrendaica). 
Although often termed an ibex, the Spanish wild goat—the cabramontes of 
the Spaniards—is much more nearly allied to the turs. It is characterised by the 
horns of the males having an upward and outward direction, and forming a slight 
and very open spiral. They are flattened on the inner side and keeled behind, so 
as to present a pyriform cross-section. When seen from the front, as in the right- 
hand figure of woodcut on next page, their form is somewhat lyrate, and on their 
outer side they carry more or less well-marked bosses or knobs, resembling those 
on the front of the horns of the ibex. There is a small but thick black beard, 
which may be of considerable length. The general colour of the hair is light 
brown, but it is much darker around the nose and on the forehead and the back 
of the head; a triangular patch on the back, a streak on the flanks, and the front 
of the limbs are black; the upper lips, the cheeks, the sides of the throat, and the 
hinder surfaces of the legs are greyish, and the remainder of the under-parts are 
white. There is, however, considerable variation in colour according to the season 
of the year, and also a certain amount of local variation in this respect. The hair 
is much longer in winter than in summer, and there is a thick woolly under-fur. 
The height of the animal is about 26 inches at the shoulder. Horns of old rams 
average 24 or 25 inches, but may reach 27 or 28 inches in length. 
The Spanish wild goat inhabits the Pyrenees, some of the 
mountains of Central Spain, and the higher ranges of Andalusia 
and Portugal. That the species has existed in the southern portion of its habitat 
since the Pleistocene epoch is proved by the occurrence of its bones in the caves of 
Gibraltar, in company with those of an extinct rhinoceros. 
It was at one time considered that the wild goat of Andalusia was specifically 
distinct from the Pyrenean form, but it is now known that the two are only 
varieties of a single species. It appears from the observations of Mr. A. Chapman 
that the variety from the Pyrenees is the largest, and is characterised by the horns 
of very old males tending to assume a smooth form, without distinct knobs, and 
thus approximating to those of the Caucasian tur. In specimens obtained from the 
Sierra Nevada, in Andalusia, at elevations of about eleven thousand feet, the horns 
are frequently as long as those of the Pyrenean variety, but they are generally 
more flattened, while the size of the animals themselves is considerably less. The 
wild goats of the Central Spanish Cordilleras are those with the heaviest and most 
Distribution. 
