264 Goats
young shoots of dwarf oaks and cedars, and berries constitute their staple
food in these districts; The kids, which are usually either one or two in
number, are born in May.
b. Sind W ild R a ce— C a p r a hircus b l y th i
Capra blythi, Hume, Proc. As. Soc. Bengal, 1874, p. 240, no description.
Characters.-^Size smaller than in the Persian race; the front edge of the
horns of the males either totally devoid of knots, -or with only a very few
and these very small; and the ground-colour of the pelage very much
paler, but the face-markings darker and more sharply defined. From the
table on p. 262 it will be seen that, length for length, the Sind race has
the tips of the horns closer together than in specimens from other districts.
The name C. blythi was applied by Mr. Hume to the Sind wild goat in
order to distinguish it from C. caucasica, with w h ich ® had been confounded,
but as no description was given, the name must date from the present use.
A skull and horns presented by Mr. Hume to the British Museum (No.
91, 8, .7, 160) may be taken as the Type, their place of origin being Sind.
Distribution.-—Sind and Baluchistan ; in the eastern district'll of the
latter country probably intergrading with the Persian race.
c. D om e st ic a ted B r ee i»§—C a p r a hircus t y p ic a -
Mgoceros hircus, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. vol. i. p. 227 ( 18 11) .
Hircus cegagrus, Gray, Cat. XJngulata Brit. Mus. p. 152 (1852), nec
Capra cegagrus, Gmelin, 1788.
Capra dorcas, Reichenow, 7/joL Jah rb. Syst. vol. iii. p. 591, pi. xv.
(1888), Zool. Garten, vol. xxix. p. 29 (1888).
The domesticated goat of Sweden, which is the typical representative
of the species, is certainly the descendant of the wild cegagrus, as are also
Domesticated Breeds 265
probably most other domesticated breeds, whether still kept in captivity
or reverted to the wild state, as they have in many countries and islands.
To describe any of these breeds would be beyond the province of this
work, as they do not come under the title of wild animals, in the proper
sense' of the word. Many gfe. them have received distinct technical
names, although none are entitled to rank as separate species, or even
sub-species. The goat of the Island of Joura, near Eubcea, has been
regarded as truly wild and described as C. dorcas, but I am informed by
P ro g E. Biichner, who has seen living specimens in Berlin, that it is
nothing more than a domesticated breed run wild. A distinction between
most, i f not all, domesticated goats and the wild races is to be found in
the presence of a beard on the chins of the females of the fermer, but this
P evidently an acquired character. Although, as already mentioned, at
least the majority ogthe domesticated breeds trace their ancestry to the
wild cegagrus and blythi^many appear to have been crossed with other wild
species,: such as ibex and markhor, both of which will readily breed in
confinement with tame goats. In the Himalaya and Tibet it is by no
means uncommon to meet with domesticated goats having spiral horns of
the markhor type, and it is not impossible that ’some of the breeds with
such horns may be descended from the markhor. As a rule, however, the
spiral in tame goats runs in the reverse direction to thatjjjbtaining in the
markhor, the first turn of the front ridge of the horns inclining inwards.
But Mr. Blanford states that he has seen exceptions, one being a Nepalese
head in the British Museum.
It may be added that the Kashmir shawl-goat develops a considerable
amount of under-fur, or pashm, at the base of the longer hairs, which is
the material employed in weaving. Since similar- pashm occurs in the
wild goat, and is wanting in the markhor, an additional argument is presented
in favour of the origin of the domesticated breeds from the former
species, Mr. Schreiner, the author o f an interesting little volume on
2,M