GOATS. 
45 
Himalayan species being seldom found lower than from 12,000 to 
16,000 feet above the sea, climb with great facility, and are of all 
game the most wary and difficult of approach. It is almost impos- 
sible to ascertain now which of the Wild Sheep represent the 
ancestral stock from which the domestic races have descended. 
Probably, as in the case of oxen and dogs, they have a mixed 
origin from several distinct wild species. 
The Goats are distinguished from the Sheep by their laterally 
flattened horns, which are placed more upright on the head and 
curve nearly directly backwards, often almost touching each other 
at their tips, by their long beards, shorter and less thickly-haired 
tails, and their strong, disagreeable odour. The Wild Goat 
(^Capra cegagrus), of the mountains of South-western Asia (Cases 53 
and 54), is certainly the ancestor of our common domestic animal, 
which is in some respects degenerated, being much smaller, and 
possessing horns not half the size of those of the wild stock. The 
specimens in the Case were obtained in the Taurus Mountains of 
Asia Minor, and on Mount Ararat. 
The other Wild Goats, such as the Wild Goats of the Caucasus 
[Capra caucasica and pallasii), the Pyrenean Thar [C. pyrenaica) , 
and the Ibexes of the Himalayas, Alps, and Pyrenees, are exhibited 
in Cases 45, 61 to 66. 
The next group is that of the Antelopes and Gazelles (Cases 67 
to 83), distinguished by their light build, bright colours, and 
slender and variously curved horns. They are found in their fullest 
development in Tropical Africa, more than three fourths of the 
species being restricted to that continent. As might be expected 
from this fact, they are all peculiarly suited to life in open plains 
and deserts, being very swift of foot, and, as a rule, of such a 
colour as to harmonize well with their general surroundings. 
Of the Antelopes exhibited, too numerous and too closely allied 
for a detailed description here, the following may be noted : — 
The Elands of Central and South Africa [Oreas), the largest of 
the group, and formerly acclimatized in this country, are placed in 
a separate case in the Saloon. 
The beautiful Lechee Antelope [Kobus lecliee ) . (Cases 67 and 68.) 
The M"ater-Buck [Kobus ellipsiprymnus) (between Cases 63 and 
66), and the Sing-Sing from Abyssinia [Kobus defassus) (between 
Cases 67-70). 
[Cases 
53 & 54.] 
[Cases 45, 
61-66.] 
[Cases 
67-83.] 
