1875.] WILD GOAT OF ASIA MINOR. 463 
abundant and the mountains are low, they often come down even in 
fine weather almost to the sea-level. 
Gmelin (Reise d. Russ. Th. iti.) mentions that the Hegagrus lives 
in company with the Eastern Sheep (Ovis gmelini’?). 
Like all the Ibex tribe the Aigagrus is extremely shy and wary at 
ordinary times, though, as is the case with many other animals, they 
may be easily approached during the rutting-season. I was told 
that they were often brought within shot at that time by the hunter 
secreting himself and rolling a few small stones down the rocks. 
When suddenly disturbed they utter a short angry snort and make 
off at a canter rather than a gallop. Though their agility among 
the rocks is marvellous, they do not, according to Mr. Hutton 
(Calcutta Journ. vii. p. 524), possess sufficient speed to enable them 
to escape from the dogs which are employed to hunt them in the 
lowlands of Afghanistan. It is interesting to see how, when danger 
is dreaded, the party is always led by the oldest male, who advances 
with great caution and carefully surveys the suspected ground before 
the others are allowed to follow. Their food consists principally of 
mountain-grasses, shoots of different small species of oak and cedar, 
and various berries. The young are dropped in May, and are one 
or two (Kotschy says sometimes three) in number. The horns appear 
very early, as shown in a kid of the year procured in the beginning 
of January. It is to be regretted that we were not able to ascertain 
the sex of this specimen, the body having been partially eaten by 
Vultures before we could secure it. No doubt many of the young 
are destroyed by the larger raptores, and a certain number by the 
Bears, Panthers, Lynxes, and Wolves; in addition to these ordinary 
foes, the Wild Goat suffers much from ticks and from an insect pest 
in the form of a peculiar bot, which locates itself in the frontal 
sinuses and the cavities of the horns, one of which, when cut open, 
was discovered to be entirely filled with these larve. Dr. Cobbold, 
to whom I forwarded some of these insects, writes, ‘‘The (sérus 
larvee placed in my hands for examination appear to be totally 
distinct from any form which has come under my notice ;” he also 
thinks that great distress must be caused by the ingress and egress 
of the bots in question. Herr Kotschy says that the Wild Goat is 
also infested by another parasite (Reise in cilisch. Tau. p. 258), which 
he describes as “not a tick; it was 3 lines long, brown in colour, and 
with a rounded abdomen, and escaped quickly from the dead animal 
into the beard of the hunter who was skinning it’’*. 
The external characteristics of the Hgagrus having been already 
so well described by Dr. Brandt and others, I will only remark that 
its general colour undergoes the change usual to that class of 
animal, becoming lighter in summer, that there is a considerable 
variation in the depth of the ground-colour and the markings and 
the extent of the latter in various individuals, that the markings of 
the females and young are always much fainter than in the adult 
males, and that the females are always quite beardless. It is 
* The existence of (strd larvee in C. egagrus is recorded by Dr. Murie (Proce, 
Zool. Soe. 1870, p. 80). 
