EUROPEAN IBEX. 
115 
parts of its habits it closely resembles, being extreme- 
ly watchful, and difficult of approach on account of 
the delicacy of its senses of hearing and smell. It 
is an animal standing from two feet six to two feet 
ten inches in height. Tlie colour of its hair, like 
that of many of the deer, seems also to undergo a 
change with the seasons, being in summer of a red- 
dish-brown, during winter of a greyish-brown, the 
inner narts of the legs and the belly being always 
whitish. A young animal figured by Fred. Cuvier 
is entirely of a greyish-brown, very dark above. 
The horns in this species ai-e often very large, they 
rise from the crest of the skull and bend gradually 
backwards, are flat, and have the anterior surface 
ringed, with very strong cross rugged bands. These 
ridges are thought to become greater in number with 
age, but Major Smith is of opinion that a regular 
increase is not always to be depended on. 
The Ibex was hunted for its flesh and skin, chiefly 
for the latter, and the chase was reckoned more ar- 
duous than even that of the chamois, for, independent 
of the difficulty and danger of the pursuit, the ani- 
mals, when driven to extremity, would turn on their 
pursuers, and, if unable to pass, would attempt to 
butt with their powerful horns, and sometimes suc- 
ceed in driving their adversary over tremendous 
precipices. In confinement it has been very seldom 
kept, so that little opportunity of observing its disposi- 
tion has been afforded. The specimen above alluded 
to as kept in the Parisian Menagerie, was quiet and 
