128 Great and Small Game of Africa 



said to refuse to breed with domestic sheep. This is, however, sufficiently 

 accounted for by the great difference in size. 



I cannot obtain any satisfactory information as to the existence and 

 range of this wild sheep in Morocco, but it is found more or less sparsely 

 in all the mountain ranges of Southern Algeria. It is also found feirly 

 abundantly in the mountains of Southern Tunis. It is met with on high 

 ground in the interior of Tripoli, and is reported to exist in most moun- 

 tainous districts of the Sahara Desert, and specimens have been obtained as 

 far east as Nubia. Its range would therefore seem to extend from the 

 Atlantic almost to the mountain country bordering the Nile, if not to the 

 Red Sea. It is emphatically a desert animal, and, so far as I know, is not 

 found in the well-forested mountains of North Africa, preferring the abso- 

 lutely treeless table-mountains of the Sahara Desert. 



In Tunis the Audad is stalked on foot. It allows the sportsman to 

 approach somewhat closely, as it is very confident of its own invisibility. 

 As the colour of its pelt is exactly the reddish-yellowish-gray of the barren 

 mountains, and its horns, eyes, and hoofs are of much the same tint as the 

 fur, it is well-nigh invisible except to the practised eyes of the Arabs. 

 When alarmed, however, its speed and powers of jumping are considerable. 

 On flat ground it can gallop away with tremendous bounds, looking as it 

 does so like a heavily-built antelope. The Audad is generally found in 

 small companies, which seem to consist of an old ram and ewe and their 

 descendants of various sizes and ages. H. H.Johnston. 



THE WILD GOATS, OR IBEX 



Genus Capra 



The most obvious distinction between the goats and sheep — and 

 especially between their more typical representatives— is the presence of 



