350 UNGULATA 
protected from cold by a coat of short thick wool of a grayish colour. 
The tail is black ; the ears are pointed and erect ; the hoofs have the 
outer edges higher than the soles, and are thus admirably adapted 
for laying hold of the slightest projection or roughness on the face 
of the rocky precipices it frequents. The Chamois is gregarious, 
living in herds of fifteen or twenty, and feeding generally in the 
morning or evening. The old males, however, live alone, except in 
the rutting season, which occurs in October, when they join the 
herds, driving off the young males, and engaging in contests with 
Fic. 144.—Nemorhewdus crispus, From Sclater, List of Animals in Zoological Society's Gardens, 
1883, p. 151. 
each other that often end fatally. The period of gestation is 
twenty weeks, when the female, beneath the shelter of a projecting 
rock, produces one and sometimes two young. In summer the 
Chamois ascends to the limits of perpetual snow, being only out- 
stripped in the loftiness of its haunts by the Ibex; and during that 
season it shows its intolerance of heat by choosing such browsing 
grounds as have a northern exposure. 
Nemorhedus..—Horns rounded, gradually recurving, without 
distinct hook at the end. Suborbital gland small or wanting ; ears 
large; skull with a large lachrymal depression, and the premaxille 
not quite reaching the nasals. Some nine species, ranging from 
the Eastern Himalayas to North China and J. apan, and southwards 
1 Hamilton-Smith, in Grifith’s Anima? Kingdom, vol. v. p. 352 (1827), 
