the subject by Dr. Girtanner of St. Gallen, and by M. van Berchem, secretary to the Society of Sciences at Lausanne; and although these two naturalists differ in some instances, yet their joint labours have assisted in ascertaining the nature and economy of this curious animal. The following account, therefore, of the bouquetin, is drawn principally from their observations in Rozier's Journal, and from additional information obligingly communicated to me by M. van Berchem himself.

"This animal is now chiefly found upon that chain which stretches from Dauphine through Savoy to the confines of Italy, and principally on the Alps border ing on Mont Blanc, which is the most elevated part of that chain.

"The several names by which the bouquetin is known in different languages, are, in Greek, by Homer and Elian, Ai aypios. [Most naturalists affirm that Homer calls this animal Agados, whereas he styles it a apos, or the wild goat, adding the epithetanos, or wanton.] Latin, ibex, which name has been adopted by most modern naturalists; Italian, capra selvatica; German and Swiss, steinboch, or rock goat; the female, etagne, or ybschen and ybschgeiss, perhaps from the Latin ibex; Flemish, wildgheit; French, bouquetin, anciently boucestain, the German name reversed. Belon named it hircus ferus; Brisson, hircus ibex ; Linnæus, capra ibex ; Pennant, the ibex and Dr. Girtanner, capra Alpina. I have adopted the name of bouquetin, because it is the provincial appellation of the animal in the Alps.

"The systematic naturalists agree in taking the specific character of the bouquetin from the beard, and the horns, which they describe as knobbed along the upper or anterior surface, and reclining toward the back.

"The male bouquetin is larger than the tame goat, but resembles it much in the outer form. The head is small in proportion to the body, with the muzzle thick, compressed, and a little arched. The eyes are large, round, and have much fire and brilliancy. The horns large, when of a full size weighing sometimes 16 or 18 pounds, flatted before and rounded behind, with one or two longitudinal ridges, and many transverse ridges; which degenerate toward the tip into knobs; the colour dusky brown. The beard long, tawny, or dusky. The legs slender, with the hoofs short, hollow on the inside, and on the outside terminated by a salient border, like those of the chamois. The body short, thick, and strong. The tail short, naked underneath, the rest covered with long hairs, white at the base and sides, black above and at the end. Space under the tail in some tawny, in others white. The coat long, but not pendent, ash coloured, mixed with some hoary hairs: a black list runs along the back; and there is a black spot above and below

the knees. Its colour, however, like that of other animals, must necessarily vary according to its age and local circumstances.

"The female has been little noticed among naturalists. She is one third less than the male, and not so corpulent: her colour is less tawny: her horns are very small, and not above eight inches long. In these, and in her figure, she resembles a goat that has been castrated while young. She has two teats, like the tame she goat, and never has any beard, unless, perhaps, in an advanced age. The young ones are of a dirty gray colour, and the list along the back is scarcely discernible.

"There is a stuffed specimen of the male bouquetin of the Alps in Mr. Parkinson's, late sir Ashton Lever's, museum.

"In a state of tranquillity, the bouquetin commonly carries the head low; but in running holds it high, and even bends it a little forward. He mounts a perpendicular rock of fifteen feet at three leaps, or rather at three successive bounds of five feet each. It does not seem as if he found any footing on the rock, appearing to touch it merely to be repelled, like an elastic substance striking against a hard body. He is not supposed to take more than three successive leaps in this manner. If he is between two rocks which are near each other, and wants to reach the top, he leaps from the side of one rock to the other alternately, till he has attained the summit. He also traverses the glaciers with rapidity; but only when he is pursued, for otherwise he avoids them.

"The bouquetins feed, during the night, in the highest woods but the sun no sooner begins to gild the summits, than they quit the woody region, and mount, feeding in their progress, till they have reached the most considerable heights. They betake themselves to the sides of the mountains which face the east or south, and lie down in the highest places and hottest exposures; but when the sun has finished more than three quarters of its course, they again begin to feed, and to descend toward the woods; whither they retire when it is likely to snow, and where they always pass the winter. The bouquetins assemble in flocks, consisting at the most of ten, twelve, or fifteen; but more usually in smaller numbers. The males which are six years old and upward, haunt more elevated places than the females and younger bouquetins; and as they advance in age are less fond of society; they become gradually hardened against the effects of extreme cold, and frequently live entirely alone.

In summer they feed principally on the genipi, and other aromatic plants which grow in the high Alps; and in winter they eat the lichens, and browze on bushes and the tender shoots of trees. They prefer those spots where the dwarf birch and Alpine willows

grow, and where rhododendron, thalictrum, and saxifrages, abound.

"The bouquetins having their fore legs somewhat shorter than the hind legs, naturally ascend with greater facility than they descend; for this reason nothing but the severest weather can engage them to come down into the lower regions; and even in winter, if there are a few fine days, they leave the woods and mount higher.

"Winter is the season of love with them, and principally the month of January. The females go with young five months, and consequently produce in the last week of June, or the first of July. At the time of parturition they separate from the males, retire to the side of some rill, and generally bring forth only one young, though some naturalists affirm that they occasionally produce two.

"The common cry of the bouquetin is a short sharp whistle, not unlike that of the chamois, but of less continuance; sometimes it makes a snort, and when young bleats.

"The season for hunting the bouquetin is toward the end of summer, and in autumn, during the months of August and September, when they are usually in good condition. None but the inhabitants of the mountains engage in the chase; for it requires not only a head that can bear to look down from the greatest heights without terror, address and sure footedness in the most difficult and dangerous passes, and to be an excellent marksman, but also much strength and vigour, to support hunger, cold, and prodigious fatigue.

"The female shows much attachment to her young, and even defends it against eagles, wolves, and other enemies; she takes refuge in some cavern, and presenting her head at the entrance of the hole, thus opposes the enemy.

"It is not improbable that the hircus ferus, or boucestain of Belon, the bouquetin of the Alps, the Siberian ibex, and the ægagrus, both so accurately described by Pallas, and the tame goat in all its different forms, are only varieties of the same species. Perhaps also the capra caucasica, described by Pallas, from the papers of Guldenstaedt, and which he represents as differing from the ægagrus, with which it has been confounded by some naturalists. See Act. Petr. for 1779.

"The horns of the bouquetin, as has been before observed, are sometimes found to weigh sixteen or eighteen pounds, to be three feet in length, and to have twenty-four transverse ridges.

"Buffon extends the goat genus still further, and comprehends under it even the chamois, conjecturing that the bouquetin is the male in the original race of goats, and the chamois the female. The French

naturalist having, at the time when he described the bouquetin, never seen it in a full grown state, was probably induced to entertain this opinion from a

faint resemblance between the female bouquetin and the chamois. But there does not seem the least foundation for this notion, the chamois being an animal totally distinct from the goats, never coupling with them, and judiciously classed by Pallas and Pennant in the genus of antelopes. His conjecture, however, that the bouquetin is the original source of all the tame goats seems to be well founded; and has been adopted by the greatest part of succeeding naturalists. And as, according to the just observations of Pallas, the ægagrus approaches nearer than the bouquetin to the tame goat in its form and horns, the ægagrus may be the link which unites the bouquetin and the tame goat.

"If these observations should be well founded, the goat genus, or race of the bouquetin, is found in a wild state along the chain of mountains that traverses the temperate parts both of Europe and Asia; on the Pyrennees and Carpathian mountains; on the Taurus and Caucasus; on the mountains of Siberia and Tartary; in Kamtschatka; on the islands of the Archipelago; in Hedsjeas in Arabia; in India; perhaps in Egypt and Lybia."

The reader will observe from these accounts, that the rock goat feeds on plants far enough removed from the nature of corn, and that corn can never be the food allotted by Providence for the support of its young. Also, that the time of its gestation is known, being five months.

The above accounts also justify what is said on 1 Sam. xxiv. 1. of the hunting of David by Saul: but I do not find direct proof of the affectionate constancy of the female ibex, which I have supposed might be the reference in Prov. v. 19. However, the general nature and habits of both sexes of this rock goat must needs be so similar, that the circumstantial evidence to this effect is little short of positive assertion; and till a better explanation of that passage be offered, I think the view of it given in the place referred to, is entitled to consideration, if not to confidential reception.

Moreover, I remark, that Pennant informs us, that "the females at the time of parturition separate from the males, and retire to the side of some rill, to bring forth." This looks as if the females usually kept company with the males; and where the creature is scarce, it is probable they associate in pairs. Neither is this probability diminished by observing that the female ibex has usually only one kid, very rarely two. This, if admissible, sets aside the objection of Michaelis, who says, quest. No. lxxxi. p. 152. "The only passage where ioleh may appear not to agree with the ibex, is Prov. v. 19. But this difficulty may be removed, if it be possible, or customary, among the Orientals, to consider the female ibex as an emblem of a beautiful woman: but I cannot conceive how an animal so uncomely can, in any language, be adopted as an image of the fair sex."

There is another species of ibex, whose horns are smooth, not having those knobs which occur in the Alpine kind. It inhabits the mountains of Caucasus and Taurus, all Asia Minor, and perhaps the mountains of India. They abound on the inhospitable hills of Laar and Khorasan in Persia. It is an animal of vast agility. Monardus saw one leap from a high tower, and fall on its horns; then springing on its legs, and leaping about without having received the least hurt. Pennant, from whom the above is taken, thinks this may be the origin of the tame goat. Perhaps the tame goat may be derived from both, as it appears certain that the offspring of the ibex and the female goat is fruitful. The female of this kind is either destitute of horns, or has very short ones.

The figure on our Plate, is that of a full grown male ibex from Ridinger. Mr. Cox says, this "is the best representation of the bouquetin of the Alps He adds which has fallen under my observation." his testimony to the general correctness of Ridinger's animals, in which we cordially agree with him.

The horns above are from Rozier's Journal, where they are given by Dr. Girtanner; but as Mr. Cox has compared the sizes of several horns, we shall add his remarks.

"The horns being so remarkable a part of this animal, I shall here add the measurement, not only of those belonging to Mr. Parkinson, but of several pairs which are deposited in the British museum.

0

1

606

91

01

93 2 2

800

312

3

0 10/21/2

09

0

9

Distance between them at the base
Distance between them at the tips
Number of transverse ridges

"It is a common notion of the hunters, adopted by many naturalists, that the age of a bouquetin may be estimated by the number of transverse ridges or knobs in the horns. M. van Berchem, however, assures me, from his own observations, that this is a vulgar error; and that its age can only be ascertained by the number and form of the teeth, as in sheep and goats. This mistake has also occasioned its term of life to be supposed much longer than it really is. This animal increases in bulk to the age of four years; according, therefore, to the system of the count de Buffon, that the age is about seven times the growth; its life is twenty-eight or thirty years.

"Some naturalists are of opinion, that the diminution of the race of bouquetins in the Alps is owing to his size, the monstrous length and weight of the horns, which impede him in his course; because he is driven into places where he can scarcely procure sufficient nourishment during great part of the year, where his sight becomes debilitated, and is frequently lost by the strong reflection of the sun from the ice and snow. They consider this animal rather as a native of the subalpine regions, which are covered during summer with the finest herbage, and where the bouquetins and chamois probably pastured in tranquillity, when only the lower vallies and plains were inhabited.

"On the contrary, it is maintained by others, that the bouquetin is endued with strength proportionate to his size; and though he is inferior to the chamois in liveliness and agility, yet he is by no means deficient in activity; that his horns, though large and weighty, yet from their reclined position do not seem to be any impediment, but rather render him essential service when he happens to fall, or purposely throws himself down precipices to avoid his pursuers. They add also, that his natural food is rather lichens than herbs; that he is particularly fond of the young shoots of trees and shrubs; and that in all the places where he inhabits, he is found in the coldest and rudest mountains, and on the steepest rocks. From these circumstances, it is not improbable, that his present situation and manner of life is an effect of nature rather than necessity. Besides, why do the chamois, who are more hunted than the bouquetin, still inhabit the less elevated regions; and why are they not driven into the glaciers?"

As the ibex has been confounded with the roebuck by some, and with the chamois by others, including even Buffon, I shall add the distinctions between the two latter animals, as given us by Dr. Girtanner.

1. By size being much larger.