These Ruminants have horns which are covered with an elastic sheath, something like agglutinated hair; they may be divided into two groups.
To the first group belong the Chamois, Gazelle, Saiga, Nyl-ghau, Gnu and Bubale. To the second group belong the Common Goat, the Mouflon or Wild Sheep, the Domestic Sheep and the Ox.
The most remarkable species belonging to the first division all come under the natural group formerly known by the name of Antelopes. It comprehends about a hundred species, which live, for the most part, in Africa. They are generally slender and lightly-made, fleet in running, of a gentle and timid disposition; they are gregarious, and are particularly distinguishable by the different shapes of their horns.
We shall glance at the most remarkable genera resulting from the division of the old general group of Antelopes.
The chief characteristic of the Chamois is constituted by the smooth horns which are placed immediately above the orbits. These horns are almost upright, with a backward tendency, and curved like a hook at the end. The horns exist in both sexes, and are nearly the same size in each. The Chamois has a short tail, and no beard.
The European Chamois is about the size of a small Goat. It is covered with two sorts of hair—one woolly, very abundant, and of a brownish color; the other, silky, spare and brittle. Its coat is dark brown in winter and fawn-color in summer; its fine and intelligent head is of a pale yellow, with a brown stripe down the muzzle and round the eyes. Its horns are black, short, smooth, and not quite rounded.
This graceful Ruminant inhabits the Pyrenees and Alps, and also some of the highest points in Greece. But from constant persecution it has lately become so rare that few people can boast of having been successful in its pursuit.
The Chamois lives in small herds, in the midst of steep rocks on the highest mountain summits. With marvelous agility it leaps over ravines, scales with nimble and sure feet the steepest acclivities, bounds along the narrowest paths on the edge of the most perilous abysses, and jumping from rock to rock, will take its stand on the sharpest point, where there appears hardly room for its feet to rest; and all this is accomplished with an accuracy of sight, a muscular energy, an elegance and precision of movement, and a self-possession which are without equal. From these facts, it can easily be understood that hunting this nimble and daring animal is an amusement full of danger.
