THE MOUNTAIN GOAT. 4I 



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Like the Musk Ox, the Mountain Goat is extremely rare in 

 collections, and their skins and skeletons are quite valuable and 

 should always be preserved. 



It is reported that several years since, in Montana, five individ- 

 uals of this species were captured alive. The hunters who were 

 provided with dogs, are said to have approached as closely as pos- 

 sible to the herd, and then to have slipped their canine assistants, 

 remaining concealed themselves. Before the goats took the alarm, 

 the dogs were so nearly upon them that they took refuge on some 

 high and broken fragments of rock, where they stood at bay. 

 Here their attention was so occupied by their immediate assailants, 

 that the hunters were enabled to surround them and secure five 

 with their riatas. This account would seem to indicate that the 

 Mountain Goat is not a particularly fleet creature, and this sup- 

 position is confirmed by a study of the skeleton ; the animal seems 

 fitted more for climbing than for running, and to possess great 

 endurance rather than great speed. 



Various absurd stories are told by hunters of the wonderful 

 power which these animals possess of leaping from great heights 

 and alighting in safety on their horns. That these tales have no 

 foundation in fact, any one who has examined the skull of a 

 Mountain Goat will readily comprehend. The species is also said 

 to prefer death to capture, a statement which is on a par with the 

 one just referred to. If one of these animals throws himself over 

 a precipice, it is not because he wishes to spite the hunter, but 

 because in his fear of his pursuer he takes an unusually dangerous 

 leap, or makes an effort to pass over some path where the foothold 

 is too precarious even for such a sure-footed climber as he. 



The females of this species are said to bring forth their young 

 in June, but the period of gestation is not known. It is said that 

 in winter, when the tops of the mountains are deeply covered with 

 snow, and food is inaccessible, these animals descend to the timber 

 and remain there until the heights become partly bare in spring. 

 On the whole, but little is known of the habits of this species, but 

 it is stated, and no doubt truly, that the race is far less numerous 

 now than in former days. 



