THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
The colour of the chamois in summer is a greyish dun, with black 
markings on the face, but in winter the hair becomes much longer and is 
almost black. 
Albino and pale varieties are not unknown, but are extremely rare. There 
is a superstition in Tyrol that the man who kills a white chamois will 
die within the year. In some parts of Styria and Salzburg there sometimes 
occur melanistic chamois without any pale markings on the face, and 
these are known as “ coal ” chamois.” 
Chamois are gregarious and found in small herds. They are very watch- 
ful for their safety, and usually post a sentinel to guard against surprise. 
Old bucks, as a rule, seem to prefer a solitary existence during the greater 
part of the year, and are only found with the family parties in the rutting 
season in November. At this season the glands at the base and behind 
each horn of the male become greatly swelled and are filled with a pasty 
lymph which has a disagreeable odour. At other seasons these glands are 
not visible externally. The period of gestation is twenty weeks, and the 
female produces one and rarely two kids. 
The agility and sureness of foot of the chamois are proverbial, and it is 
one of the most remarkable sights in Nature to see these animals ascending 
a steep rock face or descending hard ice coated with snow. The hind legs 
of the chamois are much longer than the forelegs and built, as it were, 
on powerful springs, so they can ascend precipitous faces more easily 
than they can descend them. In fact chamois can pass up cliffs that look 
quite inaccessible, springing from ledge to ledge and balancing on the 
tiniest projection. A road is formed uphill, which to man, with his clumsy 
feet, would be impossible, yet in coming down at leisure chamois do not 
choose such difficult places by which to descend but rather pick out the 
easier way of snow slides, moraines and grass -slopes, for it is only when 
forced to do so that they make a steep descent. They are said to be able to 
“ glissade ” down a snow-slope with all four legs held well forward to grip 
the snow, and the false hoofs, which are very strongly developed, act as a 
brake. This is the subject of one of Joseph Wolf’s most charming pictures 
of these animals. He told me he had himself witnessed it in the Tyrol 
several times. 
The lessee of a Highland deer forest in Scotland probably gets less for 
his money than any other sportsman in the world, whilst to successfully 
stalk and kill the stag at the rutting time is not a great effort of skill. 
Scottish deer stalking is an excellent training for the youthful hunter, 
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