304 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



cated in a bas relief at Chelminar or Persepolis, which re- 

 presents a man leading a wild goat by the horns, in token 

 of tribute to the great king. 



Kaempfer, Gmelin, and others, notice the JEgagrus as 

 found in the Caucasian Mountains, the hills of Laar and 

 Chorazan in Persia, and in still greater abundance in Asia 

 Minor. Pallas first clearly distinguished it from its con- 

 geners, and conjectured that the domestic goats might derive 

 from this stock. 



It is supposed that a variety inhabits the high mountains 

 of Europe : two individuals existed in Paris, described by 

 the Baron, but with some doubt as to their identity with 

 the Asiatic iEgagrus. In general they were of the same 

 form, but the horns had not the anterior edge undulating, 

 but rather level, and marked with transverse striae, though 

 one shewed eight more prominent ridges ; they were two 

 feet six inches long, and the tips somewhat turned out- 

 wards ; the colour of one was gray, that of the other ful- 

 vous. It was also doubted whether these were not the off- 

 spring of the Ibex and the Common Goat, but this conjec- 

 ture was the more questionable, because their inter-copu- 

 lating with the Domestic Goat was either followed by abor- 

 tion, or by the speedy death of the kid. Large individuals, 

 cherished as leaders of the flocks, are not uncommon both 

 in Switzerland and the Pyrenees. We have even seen sheep 

 of a very large size kept for the same purpose ; and at 

 Chamounix, a male goat, which would have answered to 

 the above description, but that it was covered with long 

 hair. This animal was said to be the third remove from 

 the intermixture with the Ibex. 



If continued experiments on crossing the wild and tame 

 species of the Goat should not reverse the results obtained 

 in Paris, it would follow that the tame species are not de- 

 scended from them ; yet there is a gradation of the cha- 

 racter in the horns from the square nodose of the Alpine 



