in the size of the beard does not appear due to season, since one of the
larger males seems to be in the winter and the other in the summer dress.
An immature male from the Caucasus living in the London Zoological
Gardens in 1898 presented no appreciable points of difference from the
Taurus examples.
In the female the horns are much smaller and placed farther apart,
rising for some distance erect, and then curving slightly backwards; their
transverse section being oval. The beard is wanting, and the coloration
paler than in the male.
Mr. Rowland Ward records the following horn-measurements of this
and the next race of the wild goat»:
Length along
Outer Curve.
Basal
Circumference. Tip to Tip. Locality.
J 2t 7f
00
Sind
4ȏ 8f r3 l Caucasus
46S 7 14 Sind
4G3 H i 8 | Asia Minor
46 7t I I Sind
4 5 i 8 HI „
445 8| Caucasus
44Ï 1 11 (?) Sind
43 1 22f ?
43'! 8| BB 1 ?
43 9 H i Taurus Mountains
43, 92 ? ■ Asia Minor
In the Asian newspaper of 2nd August 1898, Mr. J . Strip, of the
Customs Department in Sind, gives the following account of a living
specimen whose horns are reported to exceed all the foregoing in length.
The animal was seen at Karachi on board ship, in charge of an agent of
Mr. C. Hagenbeek, and had been obtained from Luristan, in Persia. “ My
measurement,” writes Mr. Strip, “ with the aid of Mr. Judd and the
owner, who helped me in holding the animal and placing the tape
carefully over the curve, showed the left horn to be 5 5 J inches, and the
right, which was broken, 50^ inches, and between the tips 24 inches.”
Distributions—The islands, of South-Eastern Europe (from most of which
it is now exterminated), and the mountains of South-Eastern Europe and
South-Western Asia, from the Caucasus through Persia to the confines of
Baluchistan, where it probably intergrades with the Sind race. Although
exterminated in the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, where it was
formerly abundant, the wild goat is stated by Dr. Forsyth Major still to
JfSirvive in the island o f Tavolara,-situated off the north-east coast of
Sardinia, where its fossilised remains aljft' occur, ' According to Dr. Radde,
in the Caucasus this species is found in the Little Caucasus, or Armenian
Highlands, from the sga-level to heights of 12,000 feet, and on Mount
Ararat up to 14,000 feet. He alsSecords it from the Upper Ardon, Western
Daghestan, forming the western - extremity of the Great Caucasus.
Habits,— In Asia Minor, according to Mr. C. G. Danford, the wild
goat is found either solitary or in small parties or herds varying in number
from ten to twenty up to as many as one hundred head. During summer
the old bucks keep to the higher mountains, being often met with on the
snow, while the does and kids frequent lower elevationil| In winter both
sexes keep much more together, living at elevations of from 2000 to 3000
feet on rocky ground among bushe§ or scattered pines. In certain districts
they may even descend almost to the sea-level. Although at other times
extremely shy and wary, during the pairing season they can be approached
with ease, and may be attracted within range by a concealed hunter rolling
a few stones down the hillside. I«urprised, they utter a kind o f short
snort, and immediately make off in a canter. Their agility among rocks is
little short of marvellous, but if driven down to the lowlands they can be
easily caught by dogs,, as is .done in Afghanistan. When danger threatens,
the oldest male takes command of the herd, and carefully surveys the line
of advance or retreat before permitting theljthers to follow. Grass, the