صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

sheep-proper, by the obliquity of their insertion on the top of the head, their less volume, greater compression, less angularity, and, above all, by the keeled character of their sharp anteal edge. The tail of the goats is shorter and flatter than in the sheep; their chest or knees frequently bare and callous; and their hairy pelage apt to be of great and unequal lengths.

It must be remembered that the so-called wild goats of the Himálaya (Jháral or Tehr) are not goats at all; for they have four teats, a moist muzzle, and no interdigital pores or feet pits. Having premised this caution and solicited attention to the above essential and subordinate characters of the goats, I proceed to describe the several tame species of Tibet and of the sub-Himálayas.

1. Capra Chúngrú.-The Chángrá. This is the common domestic goat of Tibet, a breed of moderate size, distinguished by the uniform abundance of its long flowing straight hair, which descends below the knees, and hocks, and covers pretty uniformly the whole animal. Even the legs are abundantly provided with hair, though, of course, it is shorter there than on the body, whilst the head, with its ample forelock and beard, worthy of the Shah of the Persia, shows the same tendency to copious development of pelage in this animal, which has likewise a spare sub-fleece of exceedingly fine wool. Length from snout to vent about 4 feet. Mean height 2 feet. Head to occiput, by the curve, 11 to 12 inches, straight 9 to 10 inches. Ears 5 to 6 inches. Tail only, 4 to 43. Tail and hair, 9 to 10 inches. Girth behind the shoulder, 2 to 23 feet. Horns along the curve, 1 to 1 feet. Basal girth of horns, 6 to 7 inches. The Chángrá has all the independence of physiognomy and boldness of carriage; but not, perhaps, all the hardihood of the constitution, which Buffon has attributed to the whole race of goats. He is wanton, capricious, restless, impatient of strict restraint, and of docility far inferior to that of the sheep, though better able to endure change of climate, his gay roving eye bespeaking his mercurial temperament, and any attempt to handle him demonstrating his impatience of all but lax control. Ordinarily he is tractable enough; but he will not submit, like his countryman the Húniá, to carry burdens; and he may be bred and herded with facility; but he requires a large range and liberty to please himself whilst grazing.

In the dry cold plains of Tibet, which are every where varied by hills and broken ground, the Chángrá flourishes exceedingly, and also in the northren region of the cis-Himálayan mountains. He will not only live but breed in the central region of the sub-Himálayas; and with extreme care may be kept alive, but not bred, in the southern region of the hills, and even in the plains. But he merely exists in the two last named locations, and even in the central region of the mountains, he loses the fine silky sub-fleece, retaining the external hairy pelage only, and that much shorn of its "fair proportions." A Kirghis breed allied to the Chángrá, has been conveyed safely to Europe, and bred there succesfully in the alpine parts of southern France; and, as both this and the Chángrá are closely allied to the celebrated shaul goat, I have no doubt that either their exquisite sub-fleece or their abundant outer coat could be turned to good account, if not immediately yet after crossing the breed with some nearer appropriate stock such as the Angola or Whidah. The natives of Tibet manufacture ropes, caps, and coarse overalls out of the long hair, and a fine woollen cloth called Tûs, out of the sub-fleece, mixed occasionally with the wool of the Silingia sheep. The flesh of the Chángrá, especially of the kids, is excellent, and is much eaten by the Tibetans and cis-Himálayans, even the Hindús of the central region, importing large numbers for food and sacrifices, especially at the Dasahara, or great autumnal festival. But upon the whole, the Tibetans prefer the mutton of their sheep to that of their goats; and the former are consequently much more abundant in Tibet, and yet more so in the cis-Himálayan district of the Káchár, where alone, on this side the snows, goats or sheep flourish.

The Chángrá, as I have said, is a breed of medial size, with a fine small head full of expression, a spare and short neck, a long yet full body, short rigid limbs, and a short deer-like tail, rather shorter, more depressed and more nearly nude below, than in the sheep, and frequently carried more or less elevated especially in the males. The narrow oblique muzzle is covered with hair: the longish face and nose quite straight the short forehead, arched both lengthwise and across, and furnished with an ample forelock: the small brownish yellow and saucy eye placed high up or near the base of the horns. The horns, which are inserted very obliquely on the top of the head, are in contact

:

with their anteal sharp edges, but diverge towards their rounded posteal faces, and curve upwards, outwards and backwards, with much divergency and with one lax spiral twist, leaving the flat smooth points directed upwards and backwards. The compression of the horns is great, so that their basal section is elliptic or rather acute conoid, and the keel is neither very distinctly separated from the body of the horns, nor does it exhibit any salient knots, but is rather blended into the lateral surfaces, and chiefly indicated by the deflexion of the wrinkles of the horns, which are numerous and crowded but not heavy, and go pretty uniformly round the horns, but form a decided angle at the commencement of the keel. The ears are longish, narrow, obtusely pointed and pendant, with very little mobility. The short strong rigid limbs are supported on high vertical hoofs, and have obtusely conic false hoofs, pretty amply developed behind them. The essential structure in these animals is perfectly conformable to the type of the genus as above defined. That is to say, they have hairy noses void of mufle; horns common to both sexes; no trace of gland or of pit below the eye or in the groin; small feet, pits confined to the fore extremities but they are distinctly marked and invariable. No gland nor tuft on the stifle; odour intense in the males; a true beard, proper to both sexes, and invariably forthcoming callosities on the knees; and, lastly, horns inserted like those of sheep on the top of the head, but cultrated to the front, not to the rear, much more obliquely set on the head, more compressed, less angular, and showing palpable evidence of the keel in that particular form which it exhibits in gagrus,—the true wild type of Capra or the goats proper; whereas Ibex is a distinct type analogous to the Moufflons or Caprovis.* In the Chángrás there is, in fact, hardly any deviation from the wild type, except in the large and pendant ears; so that domestication would seem to have made less impression on these animals than on the sheep, though its effects on both groups have been less obliterative than is generally supposed; and it will be seen in the sequel, that all the tame Goats of these regions conform to their assumed wild prototype, with hardly less deviation than is seen in the above careful survey of the Chángrá.

The females of the Chángrá are smaller than the males, and have * See paper before adverted to in Journal Asiatic Society.

smaller horns nearly void of spiral flexure. But they are bearded, like the males, and otherwise entirely resemble them. The rutting season is early winter: the period of procreation, early summer: and the gestation of about 5 months, or some 10 days beyond the fifth month, as in the sheep.* One, two, very rarely three, young are produced at a birth. The females begin to breed in the first year of their age the males to procreate in their second year. They are at their best at 8, old at 10, decrepid at 15, and seldom live beyond 15 to 20 years. I have no memorandum of their intestines. Perhaps the most general colour of the Chángrá is white, tinged with slaty blue. But the white is seldom unmixed, and the limbs and sides of the head are apt to be dark. There are frequent dark patches on the body, and often the whole body is black or tan, the limbs only and face being white.

2. Capra Chápú.-The Chyápú and Chápú of the northern region of the sub-Himálayas. This breed bears the same relation to the Chángrá as the Cágía sheep to the Barwál, that is, it is invariably of much smaller size than the Chángrá, and has a different habitat, with great general similarity of structure and appearance, yet not wanting points of diversity. The ears of the Chyápú are invariably smaller, and less pendant than those of the Chángrá; and what is very deserv ing of attention the feet pits are not constant in the Chyápú, but are occasionally wanting, as in the Dúgú, a species presently to be described. In the majority of the goats of these regions, the feet pits are present in the anteal extremities without variation: but they are sometimes wholly wanting in all 4 feet of the Chyápú and Sínál ; frequently so in all 4 of the Dúgú; and hence we may learn that this mark is more normal in the sheep than in the goats, and that it has a strong tendency to obliteration in the latter. The Chyápú is further distinguished from the Chángrá by the very various flexure of the horns of the former, which are sometimes erect and sometimes curved backwards in the sickle style; sometimes spirally twisted and sometimes not so; and, again, the ears of the Chyápú, always short as compared with those of the Chángrá, are occasionally so in the extreme, bearing the turncated appearance of the same organs in the Barwál.

* I have taken all possible pains to determine this point, and am fully aware that the statement of the text conflicts with received opinions.

[graphic][subsumed]
« السابقةمتابعة »