552 MR. p. L. SCLATER ON THE [Juiie 23, 



9. Note on the Wild Goats of the Caucasus. By P. L. 

 ScLATERj M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



[Eeceived June 17, 1887.] 



lu my "Remarks on the various Species of Wild Goats," read 

 before the Society in May last\ I followed Blasius, Gray, and other 

 authorities in uniting ^-Egoceros pallasi, Rouiller, with Capra cauca- 

 sica, GiJld. The recent receipt by the British Museum of Natural 

 History of specimens of what is doubtless the true 0. caucasica 

 makes it evident that this identification is quite erroneous, as will 

 indeed be at once manifest from the sketches now exhibited of these 

 two very different animals. 



Thinking the existence of these two fine species must be well 

 known to our excellent Corresponding Member Dr. Radde, I wrote 

 to him for information on tlie subject, and received a reply (dated 

 Tiflis, February 9/21), from which the following is an extract: — 



" In accordance with your wish, 1 send you some short notes on 

 Capra caucasica and ^goceros pallasi. The former is a good 

 species, and inhabits the western range of the Great Caucasus around 

 the centre of Mount Elbruz. On Kasbeck I have never found this 

 species, but only C. pallasi ; so also throughout the whole of the 

 eastern Caucasus, east of Kasbeck, and in all Daghestan only C. pallasi 

 is found. Blasius has united the two species ; and if one only regards 

 the horns, it must be allowed that some very old examples of 

 O. pallasi resemble in the form of curve C. caucasica, but always 

 have their points more turned inwards. 1 obtained horns of this 

 form from Suanetia, i. e. on the south side of the Great Caucasian 

 range. 



" Dinnik published an article on these two species in Russian, 

 about three or four years ago, in the ' Schriften der Naturforscher 

 Gesellschaft ' of St. Petersburg, and gave figures of their horns. In 

 C. pallasi the horns lie flatter and twist more outwards from the fore- 

 head ; in C. caucasica they go mostly directly backwards and out- 

 wards, with the exception of the points, in one plane. I send here- 

 with copies of Dinnik's figures ; but should remark that I possess 

 very old horns of C. pallasi which also lie almost in one plane, with 

 the points turning in a half-crescent shape towards one another. 

 I send you also a sketch of these horns. This last form perhaps 

 represents a third species, as they fit in well neither with 0. cau- 

 casica nor with C. pallasi. On the whole, however, I am of opinion 

 that the form of the horns varies much in individuals. 



" Both the species belong to the Great Caucasus, and are not found 

 on the Little Caucasus, or Armenian Highlands. Here, however, 

 Capra cegagrus, from the sea-level up to the high alpine heights of 

 12,000 feet, and uj)on Mount Ararat to 14,000 feet, takes their 



' See P. Z. S. 188n, p. 314. 



