io6 



THE TWO-TOED ARTIODACTYLA. 



respect of the rest of their organization. The 

 Rocky Mountain goat frequents the highest 

 naked peaks of its home, between the limit 

 of forests and the snow-line, and among the 

 few hunters of those sparsely inhabited 

 regions enjoys the same reputation as the 

 chamois with us. Its flesh is very bad. 



The Markhor of the natives of the East 

 Indies {Capra falconeri (megaceros)), fig. 182, 

 is a powerful animal, much stronger than the 

 domestic goat. It is distinguished by the 

 strongly keeled hdrns of the male, which are 

 twisted like a cork-screw, and are very similar 

 to those of the koodoo antelope; the horns 



Fig. 183. — The Grecian 



of the female are much smaller and less 

 twisted. It also has the skin pretty uniformly 

 covered with hair, while in the adult male 

 the beard is prolonged into a kind of mane 

 which envelops the neck and breast, and gets 

 lengthened on the shoulders and back into 

 a shaggy fur. This mane is a little lighter 

 than the rest of the fur, which has a dark 

 grayish-brown colour on the hinder parts and 

 the front of the legs, while the under surface 

 and the inner side of the legs are again 

 somewhat lighter. The markhor lives on 

 the high peaks of the Himalayas of Tibet, in 

 Kashmir and Afghanistan, and the hunters 

 maintain that it devours serpents. Speci- 

 mens of this goat have been brought to 

 Europe, where it has been tamed to a certain 



Ibex (Capra agagrus). 



degree, but has always remained somewhat 

 capricious. 



The Grecian Ibex or Bezoar goat, the 

 Pasong of the Persians {Capra agagrus), fig. 

 183, is manifestly the wild goat which Homer 

 mentions when he speaks of the islands of the 

 Cyclops and Crete. Even at the present day 

 its domain extends from the islands of the 

 Archipelago to Persia. The strongly curved 

 horns of the male exhibit about a dozen 

 knobs or tubercles in front, those of the 

 female are simply compressed. The beard 

 is very strong. The usual colour of the hair 

 is reddish-brown; the under surface and the 

 inner side of the legs are whitish ; the patch 

 on the brow, the tail, and a longitudinal stripe 

 on the back are black. On the shoulders 



