618 DR. M. MENZBIER ON A NEW CAUCASIAN GOAT. [DcC. 6, 



silvery, the upper parts with a blue, the sides with a brouze, tinge ; 

 the spinous portion of the dorsal is pale purple, the soft portion, the 

 anal, and the caudal yellowish ; pectorals and ventrals pinkish, the 

 cheeks and opercles being also washed with the same colour. 

 Irides golden. 



6. On a new Caucasian Goat [Capra severtzowi, sp. n.). By 

 Dr. M. Menzbier, C.M.Z.S., Professor in the Univer- 

 sity of Moscow. 



[Received November 15, 1887.] 



In the lately published memoir of Mr. Eug. Biichner, " Zur 

 Geschichte der kaukasischen Ture"' we have a carefully prepared 

 treatise upon the present state of our knowledge of Capra caucasica 

 and Capra cylindricornis {Mgoceros pallasii), as well as of their 

 distribution and synonymy. But it seems that I am more fortunate 

 than Mr. Biichner in the solution of the question what is the Capra 

 caucasica of Giildenstaedt, who very positively speaks on the 

 " cornua" of this Goat as "retrorsum et extrorsum arcuata, apice 

 denuo introrsum vergcntia." During the last two years 1 have had 

 an opportunity of receiving many skins, horns, and skulls of the 

 Mountain-Goat from the northern Caucasus, and amongst them I 

 have found at last the true Capra caucasica of Giildenstaedt. It is a 

 Mountain-Goat inhabiting the region between Elbruz and Dykh- 

 tau, and only mentioned by Mr. Dinnik in his pamphlet on the 

 Caucasian Mountain-Goat. I do not understand either how such 

 an excellent naturalist could maintain that the INIountain-Goat 

 from the central part of the northern Caucasus is the same as 

 the Mountain-Goat from the western half of this region, nor his 

 conclusion that the western Mountain-Goat is the true Capra 

 caucasica of Giildenstaedt. In the western and eastern or central 

 Mountain-Goat of the northern Caucasus we have two quite different 

 animals — the central being the true Capra caucasica of Giildenstaedt, 

 in many respects assimilating to ^g. pallasii ; the western, I think, 

 being a species new to science, but erroneously described by Mr. 

 Dinnik and Mr. Biichner as Capra caucasica. For this western 

 Caucasian Goat I propose the name Capra severtzowi, in hononr 

 of my friend INIr. Severt20w, to whom we are under great obligations 

 for our knowledge of the different Wild Goats and Sheep. 



The subjoined descriptions of the Caucasian Mountain-Goats may 

 serve to distinguish these two very different animals. 



Capra caucasica, Giild. 



This Goat is a very graceful, handsome, and powerful animal, a 

 little smaller than Capra severtzowi, but with enormous black horns. 



1 Published in the Mem. Acad. So. St. P6tersbourg, ser. vii. t. xxxv. No. 8 

 (1887). 



