EUROPEAN GOATS AND SHEEP 
shown the “record” pair of European ibex horns shot by the King of 
Italy, the measurement given being 31*89 inches. 
The front surface of the horns is very broad and the horns them- 
selves scimitar -shaped and not unlike those of the Arabian ibex, 
but not so large or so broad in the tranverse knots. The horns of the 
female are thin and short, seldom exceeding six inches and similar in 
form to other species of ibex. 
The range of the steinbok is now only on the south side of the Swiss 
Alps and Savoy, although till recently they were carefully preserved in 
the Austrian Tyrol. It was found, however, that the animals offered such 
an inducement to poachers and so many lives were lost in the strife 
to retain them that the Austrian nobles allowed the species to become 
extinct. 
The extermination of the ibex in Europe seems to have been effected 
at an early date. In the valley of Martinswand the last seems to have been 
killed in 1540 (Klar), whilst it disappeared from the Canton Glarus in 1550, 
and was very rare in Granbiinden in 1574. In the seventeenth century it was 
scarce in Bergell arid the Upper Engandine, where in 1612 its destruction 
was prohibited. At the end of the seventeenth century it was still found 
near Bagnethal, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century in Wallis, 
since which date it has vanished from Switzerland. 
In 1666 the species survived in the Zillerthal, in Tyrol, and in 1694 an 
official census gives seventy-two bucks, eighty-three does, and twenty- 
four fawns as living in Tyrol; but by 1706 these were reduced to five bucks 
and seven does, after which they seem to have vanished. 
Some time, however, in the nineteenth century they were reintroduced 
into Styria, but became extinct a few years ago for the reasons already 
mentioned. The ibex first disappeared from Styria about the year 1780. 
Sir Edmund Loder possesses a remarkably fine pair of 34^-inch horns, 
which were killed in that country (see illustration). 
On the Piedmontese side of Monte Rosa, owing to Government protec- 
tion, herds of ibex exist in several valleys, although it is doubtful to what 
extent these are pure bred, since many hybrid cegagrus have also been 
introduced. In early days the species may have been numerous, for 100 
or 200 head of wild goats were exhibited alive in the Roman amphitheatre, 
but it is not certain to what species they belonged. 
The general habits of the steinbok are similar to other species of ibex: 
the males do not consort with females, except during the rutting season in 
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