300 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



attentive and affectionate to their young, and will defend 

 them against wolves and eagles. 



The Ibex. (C. Ibex.) The Goats are not numerous in 

 species ; in Europe the Ibex is the most celebrated. It is 

 an animal near five feet long, two feet eight inches in height 

 at the shoulder, with about two inches more at the rump ; 

 the horns are flat, sustained by two longitudinal ridges at 

 the sides, traversed by numerous cross ridges or knots, dis- 

 posed at intervals so as to bear a resemblance, when seen 

 in front, to a segment of a cog-wheel ; they are nearly ver- 

 tical to the plane of the face at their roots, diverging and 

 uniformly falcated backwards, sometimes thirty inches long, 

 dark coloured, and very robust. It is asserted that the 

 transverse knots mark their age. We have sketched the 

 living Ibex reported to be in its third year, with only three ; 

 one in the second, having two knots, and old adults marked 

 with fifteen or sixteen ; but doubt whether these indications 

 are invariable, or perfectly conformable to fact *. In the 

 first years the Ibex is of a light ashy-gray colour, deepening 

 to brown as it advances in age, and in the adult varies from 

 a red-brown in summer, to a gray-brown in winter ; the 

 hair is never very long or loose ; on the face, and along the 

 back, is a line of a dark colour ; the internal face of the 

 thighs and buttocks are whitish ; the inside of the ears and 

 inferior part of the tail are white ; the head under the chin 

 is short, dark-brown, and not very fuli. 



An adult female, which was shot in the mountains of 

 Asturias, in Spain, had horns much resembling those of 



* The first was taken at Les Moulins, in the valley of Chamounix, 

 in the presence of several Bouquetain and Chamois hunters, who 

 agreed in stating that the three knots on the animal's horns denoted 

 its third year ; and further asserted that its full growth required 

 twelve years ! If the specimen was then in its third year, its 

 growth was certainly not more than half completed. It may be, 

 indeed, that the horns grow till the twelfth year. 



