Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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THE HORNED ANIMALS—GOATS. 453 compelled from motives of self-preservation to ac- cept it, as it occurred on the edge of a precipice. For a whole hour he had to struggle with the animal before he subdued it. Besides these chivalrous ex- ploits the buck was guilty of greater deeds of mis- chief. He continued to be the terror of the goat- herds, whom he frequently attacked and ill-treated, coming down from the heights to visit their huts. The people living on the mountains again began handing in petitions to the government, and the con- sequence was another removal of the buck. The Grimselalpe was allotted to him; but there also he evinced his old disposition; he picked quarrels with all Dogs with which he came in contact, even with the largest; and if they stood their ground he simply threw them over his head, sending them through the lir in a bold curve. He defiantly put himself in the formation of its horns. The favorite haunts of the Pyrenean Ibex are as inaccessible as those of the Steinbock, and it is equally as difficult to hunt. General Character- The Goats proper (Hircus) are, on an istics of Domes- average, of a smaller size than the tic Goats. Ibex. The horns are more or less compressed, those of the male having longitudinal angular ridges or "keels," while those of both male and female are marked by wrinkles or transverse rings, each depression indicating a deposit of horny matter acquired during the growth of the horn. In all other respects the Goats resemble the Ibex. Ancestry of the As is the case with the other domes- Domestic tic animals we do not know which Goat. species of wild animals was the orig- inal progenitor of the domestic Goat. Our informa- tion about the wild Goats, which are especially nu-
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THE .EGAGRUS GOAT. The wild Goat, called Paseng by the Persian?, is believed by many naturalists to be the original stock from which the domestic breeds are descended. The long horns of the male, transversely ridged, are proportionately longer than those of any other Ruminant animal. It inhabits the remote heights of all Asiatic mountain ranges from the Caucasus to the Himalayas. (Cafira tcgagrus.) way of climbing travelers and spread terror and panic wherever he appeared. So the government at last was obliged to take extreme measures against him and the freedom-loving, vigorous fellow was sen- tenced to die. His offspring were distinguished by a particularly savage disposition, which manifested itself as they grew older. While they were young, they diverted the goatherds by their mischievous pranks and antics; but when they grew older and stronger, they became a burden to their owners and were slaughtered, one and all. Such was the termi- nation of the Bouquetin breeding at Berne, the in- tended object being found impracticable, or if not impracticable was certainly not achieved in this at- tempt. The Ibex of the Pyrenees (Capra pyrenaicd) attains exactly the same dimensions as the Steinbock of the Alps, but differs materially from it in the shape and merous in Asia, is so meager that we have no means of forming even an approximate estimate- of the number of their species. Many naturalists believe that to the /Egagrus more than any other wild spe- cies of Goat is due the honor of having enriched us with so useful a domestic animal. The /Egagrus and the domestic Goat are alike in all physical es- sentials except in the direction and twist of their horns. Description of the The yEgagrus or Paseng (Capra agag- Azgagrusor rus) is smaller than the European Wild Goat. Bouquetin, but perceptibly larger than the domestic Goat. The length of a full-grown male is about five feet; the height at the shoulder is thirty-eight inches and at the croup nearly an inch more. The female is perceptibly smaller. The horns are very large and strong, much com- pressed laterally, sharp-edged in front and behind

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