possessing this valuable quality, but those of Kashmir, Tibet and Mongolia are the most esteemed.
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| Fig. 2.—Nubian Goat. |
The Nubian goat, which is met with in Nubia, Upper Egypt and Abyssinia, differs greatly in appearance from those previously described. The coat of the female is extremely short, almost like that of a race-horse, and the legs are long. This breed therefore stands considerably higher than the common goat. One of its peculiarities is the convex profile of the face, the forehead being prominent and the nostrils sunk in, the nose itself extremely small, and the lower lip projecting from the upper. The ears are long, broad and thin, and hang down by the side of the head like a lop-eared rabbit. The horns are black, slightly twisted and very short, flat at the base, pointed at the tips, and recumbent on the head. Among goats met with in England a good many show signs of a more or less remote cross with this breed, derived probably from specimens brought from the East on board ships for supplying milk during the voyage.
The Theban goat, of the Sudan, which is hornless, displays the characteristic features of the last in an exaggerated degree, and in the form of the head and skull is very sheep-like.
The Nepal goat appears to be a variety of the Nubian breed, having the same arched facial line, pendulous ears and long legs. The horns, however, are more spiral. The colour of the hair, which is longer than in the Nubian, is black, grey or white, with black blotches.
Lastly the Guinea goat is a dwarf breed originally from the coast whence its name is derived. There are three varieties. Besides the commonest Capra recurva, there is a rarer breed, Capra depressa, inhabiting the Mauritius and the islands of Bourbon and Madagascar. The other variety is met with along the White Nile, in Lower Egypt, and at various points on the African coast of the Mediterranean.
As regards wild goats other than the representatives of Capra hircus, the members of the ibex-group are noticed under Ibex, while another distinctive type receives mention under Markhor. The ibex are connected with the wild goat by means of Capra nubiana, in which the front edge of the horns is thinner than in either the European C. ibex or the Asiatic C. sibirica; while the Spanish C. pyrenaica shows how the ibex-type of horn may pass into the spirally twisted one distinctive of the markhor, C. falconeri. In the article Ibex mention is made of the Caucasus ibex, or tur, C. caucasica, as an aberrant member of that group, but beside this animal the Caucasus is the home of another very remarkable goat, or tur, known as C. pallasi. In this ruminant, which is of a dark-brown colour, the relatively smooth black horns diverge outwards in a manner resembling those of the bharal among the sheep rather than in goat-fashion; and, in fact, this tur, which has only a very short beard, is so bharal-like that it is commonly called by sportsmen the Caucasian bharal. It is one of the species which render it so difficult to give a precise definition of either sheep or goats.
The short-horned Asiatic goats of the genus Hemitragus receive mention in the article Tahr; but it may be added that fossil species of the same genus are known from the Lower Pliocene formations of India, which have also yielded remains of a goat allied to the markhor of the Himalayas. The Rocky Mountain goat (q.v.) of America has no claim to be regarded as a member of the goat-group.
For full descriptions of the various wild species, see R. Lydekker, Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats (London, 1898). (R. L.*)
GOATSUCKER, a bird from very ancient times absurdly
believed to have the habit implied by the common name it bears
in many European tongues besides English—as testified by
the Gr.αἰγοθήλας, the Lat. caprimulgus, Ital. succiacapre,
Span. chotacabras, Fr. tettechèvre, and Ger. Ziegenmelker.
The common goatsucker (Caprimulgus europaeus, Linn.), is
admittedly the type of a very peculiar and distinct family,
Caprimulgidae, a group remarkable for the flat head, enormously
wide mouth, large eyes, and soft, pencilled plumage of its members,
which vary in size from a lark to a crow. Its position has been
variously assigned by systematists. Though now judiciously
removed from the Passeres, in which Linnaeus placed all the
species known to him, Huxley considered it to form, with two
other families—the swifts (Cypselidae) and humming-birds
(Trochilidae)—the division Cypselomorphae of his larger group
Aegithognathae, which is equivalent in the main to the Linnaean
Passeres. There are two ways of regarding the Caprimulgidae—one
including the genus Podargus and its allies, the other recognizing
them as a distinct family, Podargidae. As a matter of
convenience we shall here comprehend these last in the Caprimulgidae,
which will then contain two subfamilies, Caprimulginae
and Podarginae; for what, according to older authors, constitutes
a third, though represented only by Steatornis, the singular
oil-bird, or guacharo, certainly seems to require separation as an
independent family (see Guacharo).
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| Common Goatsucker. |
Some of the differences between the Caprimulginae and Podarginae have been pointed out by Sclater (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1866, p. 123), and are very obvious. In the former, the outer toes have four phalanges only, thus presenting a very uncommon character among birds, and the middle claws are pectinated; while in the latter the normal number of five phalanges is found, and the claws are smooth, and other distinctions more recondite have also been indicated by him (tom. cit. p. 582). The Caprimulginae may be further divided into those having the gape thickly beset by strong bristles, and those in which there are few such bristles or none—the former containing the genera Caprimulgus, Antrostomus, Nyctidromus and others, and the latter Podargus, Chordiles, Lyncornis and a few more.
The common goatsucker of Europe (C. europaeus) arrives late in spring from its winter-retreat in Africa, and its presence is soon made known by its habit of chasing its prey, consisting chiefly of moths and cockchafers, in the evening-twilight. As
