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THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 
By MADISON GRANT. 
T he white or Rocky Mountain goat shares with the mnsk-ox 
the honor of being the least known of the game animals of 
North America and descriptions of it written even as recently 
as ten years ago are valueless, as in many cases this animal is 
confused with white mountain sheep and even with deer. The 
explanation of this lack of knowledge lies in the extremely re- 
mote and inaccessible habitat of the goat, which begins in the 
northwestern United States, among the highest peaks of the 
Rocky Mountains and of the coast ranges and extends north, 
through British Columbia, into Alaska. The material in most 
natural histories, relating to this animal, is scanty and based 
on very inadequate information, since the opportunity to see 
and hunt it has not been granted to many. In captivity, we 
have had, on the Atlantic coast, only eight immature -specimens, 
two in Boston in 1899, two in Philadelphia in 1893, and the 
four now (1905) living in the New York Zoological Park. One 
well grown male is living at this time in the London Zoological 
Garden. 
As a result of this scarcity of direct knowledge, many myths 
have gathered around this mountain dweller, leading, as usual 
in our North American game animals, to an abundance of inap- 
propriate names. The name “goat’’ is objectionable, but will 
have to stand until some better term can be found. The Stoney 
Indians in Alberta use the name “Waputehk,” and in Chinook, 
the universal jargon of the Northwest, the goat is called Snow 
Mawitch (white deer). Neither of these terms are likely to be- 
come common. It is not a goat, nor even closely related to them, 
but is the sole representative on this continent, of a very aberrant 
group of so-called mountain antelopes, known to science as the 
Rnpicaprincc, a Subfamily of the Bovidcc. 
THE MOUNTAIN ANTELOPES. 
The Rnpicaprincc comprise five widely scattered genera, ex- 
tending from the Pyrenees of Spain, to the Rocky Mountains of 
the western United States, as enumerated below. 
