MOUNTAIN FAUNAS 75 



The relatively rich pasturage, and the relative 

 security, account for the fact that mountains and 

 plateaux have a considerable number of pecuMar herbi- 

 vores, especially ungulates. The ungulates of mountains 

 belong to more than one group, but in the Old World 

 at least the two genera of sheep (Ovis) and goat (Capra), 

 which appeared late in geological time, include animals 

 which are especially adapted for mountainous districts. 

 Just as deer are typically forest animals, and antelopes 

 typically steppe or savana animals, so sheep and goats 

 are the t3rpical inhabitants of elevated regions. In the 

 case of sheep, at least, domestication has produced so 

 many changes in character, that it is somewhat difficult 

 to reaHze the extraordinary agihty of the wild animals, 

 and their other special adaptations to hfe in mountainous 

 and elevated regions. The thick coat protects them 

 against cold, and the fact that the young — ^necessarily 

 few in number in animals with such a habitat — are 

 able to follow the mother anywhere within a very 

 short time after birth is an important adaptive char- 

 acter. Like steppe animals in general, wild sheep are 

 social, and like many such animals they seem mostly 

 to appoint sentinels while feeding. Their powers of 

 leaping are very great, and they seem able to scale 

 apparently inaccessible cHffs. 



While wild sheep, hke domesticated forms, chiefly 

 graze upon the ground, the equally agUe goats depend 

 largely upon the shoots, leaves, and twigs of bushes 

 and small trees, and as the trees in their native habitats 

 are mostly xerophytic, it is noticeable that the goats 

 have very catholic ta'stes, not disdaining the resinous, 

 hairy, or spiny plants native to high steppes. From 

 the difference in diet the goats usually occupy ground 

 which is more scarped and rocky than that favoured 



