240 Goats
close together on the head and of great length, more or less compressed
and angulated, and rising above the plane of the forehead eitherpin a
scimitar-like curve or a spiral; those of females much smaller and placed
further apart at the base.
Skull without gland-pits below the eyes ; broad across the sockets of
the latter, and narrowing Somewhat suddenly below ; the planes of the
occiput and of the forehead meeting one another at an obtuse angle ;
occipital and parietal region much rounded ; profile of face concave.
Comparing the above definition with that of the genus Ovis given
on p. 149, it will be found that the points o f difference of the goats
are the absence of glands in the hind-feet, the presence of a beard in the
males, the strong odour exhaled by the latter sex, and certain details in
regard to the conformation of the skull. The horns form no criterion,
since those of the bharal are very like those of the East Caucasian tur,
in which also the beard is but very slightly developed. Had we only
the sheep of the caprovine group orTthe one hand and the more typical
goats on the other to deal with, there would be hesitation in admitting the
propriety of assigning the two group? to separate genera. But the arui,
the bharal, and the tur form such a connecting chain that the advisability
of the distinction appears to me doubtful.
This was recognised as far back as the year 18 1 1 by the Russian
naturalist and traveller Pallas, who referred all these animals to his genus
Mgoceros, although of course Capra ought to have been employed in the
same sense, as coming in the Linnean system before Ovis. Similarly
Bennett1 in 1835 wrote as follows:— “ There are twfflprincipal difficulties
in the natural history of the sheep, each involving questions of considerable
importance, but neither of them admitting, in the present state of our
knowledge, of a perfectly satisfactory solution. The first relates to the
propriety of the generic distinction between the sheep and goats, which
1 The Gardens and Menagerie o f the Zoological Society Delineated, vol. i. pp. 259 and 261.
Distribution 241
naturalists have borrowed from the vulgar classification, adopting it in many
instances against their better judgment. . . . The horns, too, vary so extensively
in both cases, and the convexity of the line of profile is subject
to so many modifications, as to render the distinctions drawn from their
characters of no-practical value. On the presence or absence of the beard
it would be absurd to dwell as offering the semblance of a generic character,
to distinguish between animals which actually produce together a mixed
breed capable of continuing their race. From all these conclusions we are
led to infer that the sheep and the goat cannot properly be said to form the
types of separate genera.”
With this, judgment I am very much inclined to agree, although, in
order to avoid complicating matters by a change of names which may not
meet with acceptation, I have thought it advisable to retain the ordinary
scheme of classification.
By Dr. Gray the goats here included under the heading Capra were
divided into (i) Mgoceros, (2) Capra, and (3) Hircus; the first division
including the tur, the second the ibex, and the third the common goat
and markhor. This, however, is obviously incorrect. I f such divisions,
whether generic or subgeneric, are adopted at all, Capra obviously belongs
to the common goat. In Pallas’s descriptionSIf his genus Mgoceros the
species first mentioned is M. ibex, so that this generic term must stand
for the ibex group, thus: superseding the later Ibex of Hodgson, and
leaving the tur without a separate designation at all^Si
Bearing in mind, therefore, that i f sub-generic divisions of Capra are
adopted, a new term would be required for the tur group, and seeing that
the various groups of goats intergrade to a very great degree, I have
considered it advisable to make noSsuch divisions at all.
Distributiofijgp-At the present day the mountainous districts of the
Eastern Holarctic region, impinging on the Oriental region in the
Himalaya, and with one outlying species in the mountain? of the north-
2 1