2,7 2, Goats
short thick under-fur ; at all seasons longer on the back of the neck, where
it forms a kind of short mane in the old bucks. In summer the general
colour of the upper-parts reddish-gray, in winter yellowish-gray jglinder-
parts paler, and separated from the dark of the back by a chocolate-brown
streak ; a light brown stripe down the middle of the back ; forehead,
cheeks, nose, throat, beard, upper surface of tail, and the lower portion' of
the legs dark brown ; on the chin, in front of the eyes, beneath the ears
the colour tending to rusty ; ears fawn-brown externally, whitish internally
; hinder part of abdomen nearly white. With advancing age the
coloration tends to become more and more uniform. Horns yellowish or
olive-brown.
At the present day it is difficult to be certain that specimenMif the
ibex have nop some intermixture of the common goat in their pedigree ;
and it is probable that td/.such crossings are due certain deviations from
the coloration described. For example, a mounted specimen purchased
by the British Museum in 1897 shows a whitish ring round each eye,
and a spot of the same colour on each side of the upper jaw behind the
lip, and another on the lower jaw ; the middle portion, of“ the hinder
surface of the cannon-bones has also whitish hair, as in the Himalayan
race of the Asiatic ibex. In other specimens in the Museum, procured
many years ago, these light markings are wanting, and they are accordingly
regarded as aberrant.
The distinctive features of this species, to which the names ibex and
steinbok are properly restricted, appear to be the broad front surface of
the horns and the small; size of the beard of the males, together with the
relatively short ears. All three features readily serve to differentiate the
species from the Arabian ibex; while the shortness of the beard distinguishes
it from the Asiatic species, to which, however, it is much more
closely allied. The horns are, indeed, very difficult to distinguish from
those of the latter ; but they never appear to attain such large dimensions;
Alpine Ibex 273
and, so far as my own observations go, they show a distinct tendency to
bevelling of thej||uter angle m the front surface, while the transverse knots
are generally thinner and tend to have the outer half less developed than
the inner portion.
Mr. Rowland Ward gives the following measurements of horns of the
Alpine ib e j^ ^ ^H
Length along
Front Curve.
Basal
Circumference. Tip to Tip.' Locality.
: ' j r 26J A o sta
34i . 9 §
? S ty ria
34i 26 A o sta
3 3 s 9 3 ; 9 t »
Q t S Dl4> 9§ 18 f t , Savoy
3°i 9 i 2 9 § A o sta
3 ° 9 21 p
; a 6 | . b W A o sta
2Ii „
In former day|f|it-is not improbable that somewhat longer specimens
might have been obtained, and Brehm gives the maximum known length
as about 40 inches.
Distribution-T h e A 1| | |B ' Switzerland, Savoy, and the Tyrol, where
the gnraiies ,#S now practically exterminated, although smalHherds are
preserved in a few valleys on the Italian side of Monte Rosa. The
extermination of the ibex, or steinbok, as it ffljcalled in the German-speaking
cantons, appears to have been brought about at a very early date. Even
in the sixteenth century it seems; to have become very rare and local.
In the valley of Martinswand the last individual is^ stated to have been
killed in the year 1540,1 while from the canton Glarus it was exterminated
in 1550, and in 1574 it was difficult to find:|| buck in Graubiinden.
At the commencement !<|f the seventeenth century it had become very
scarce in Bergell and the Upper Engadine, where in 16 12 its destruction
1 Klar, Zeitschrift der Furdinandeums fu r Tirol, etc. ser. 3, vol. xli. p. 302 (1897).
2 N