GOAT-ANTELOPE FROM FAUNA OF PIKES PEAK REGION 611 



built animals, which, however, resemble the deer in having a tear-pit in the face 

 and which are solitary in habit. These are the serows, of the subgenus Capricornis. 

 The other, of the section or subgenus Kemas, includes more graceful forms, the 

 gorals, which lack tear-pits and go in small parties. It is impossible, in the absence 

 of a skull from the Glen Eyrie Cave material, to be quite'sure whether the par- 

 ticular species of Nemorhcedus that inhabited the Pikes Peak region, and which, in 

 recognition of General Palmer's liberal patronage of science and education, I shall 

 call Nemorhcedus palmeri, was a serow or a goral. Of the serows, the osteological 

 collections of the National Museum included-a skull, but no skeleton ; but the agree- 

 ment of the two limb bones with the Corresponding ones of the species of goral in 

 the Museum (Nemorhcedus crispus, or Kemas crispus, of Japan) is such that the 

 differences can hardly be considered of more than specific value, and it seems 

 probable that our Rocky Mountain goat-antelope was a goral. A glance, therefore, 

 at the species of goral that inhabits an interior mountain region of Asia corre- 

 sponding with ours of North America may be of sufficient interest to take in this 

 connection. The following account of the goral of the Himalaya is collated from 

 Jerdon's " Mammals of India" and Lydekker's " Chapters on Hoofed Animals" : 



The animal is very caprine in appearance, the back somewhat arched, the limbs 

 stout and moderately long. It is well adapted for both climbing and jumping. It 

 stands some 27 to 30 inches high at the shoulder, the head and body measuring 50, 

 the tail 4, and the horns 8 inches in length. The horns, which are present in both 

 sexes, and only a little larger in the male than in the female, incline backward and 

 slightly inward, and are a little recurved. They are shorter than the skull, black 

 in color, round in cross-section, and ornamented with 20 to 25 encircling raised 

 folds. The fur is somewhat rough, of two kinds of hair, and there is a short, semi- 

 erect mane in the male. The color is brown, with a more or less decided gray or 

 ruddy tinge, a little lighter beneath. The throat is white. A dark line runs down 

 the back from crown to tail, and the front surface of the legs are also marked with 

 dark streaks. Though found considerably higher and lower, ranging from 3,000 

 to 8,000, the Himalayan gorals are commonest at elevations of 5,000 to 6,000 feet 

 above sealevel. They inhabit rugged grassy hills and rocky ground in the midst 

 of forests, and are usually found in small family parties of three to eight. If one 

 goral is seen, you may be pretty sure that others are not far off. They rarely or 

 never forsake their own feeding grounds. In cloudy weather they feed at all hours 

 of the day; in fair weather, only morning and evening. When one is alarmed, it 

 gives a short hissing sound, which is answered by all within hearing. 



The Glen Eyrie cave bones of the Nemorhcedus, though considerably less discol- 

 ored and mineralized than those of the horse, are well preserved and appear inter- 

 mediate in this respect between the latter and those of the woodchuck ; but it is, 

 of course, impossible to draw from this any certain inference as to the relative 

 geological age of the specimens, since the petrifactive conditions may have varied 

 in different parts of the cave-earth ; yet, so far as the evidence goes, it tends to 

 indicate a greater antiquity for the horse bones. 



If the range of. the Pikes Peak Capricorn corresponded nearly with that of the 

 Himalayan, and the cave of the capricorn-eating carnivore was conveniently located 

 within the zone of the greatest abundance of the quarry — 5,000 to 6,000 feet above 

 sealevel — the Rocky Mountain plateau must have stood something like one or two 

 thousand feet lower in its Capricorn epoch than today, as the present elevation of 

 the cave approaches 7,000 feet; and as the two conditions above predicated are 



