s represented by a
small race locally known as the izard; a very brightly-coloured form,
_R.t. picta_, inhabits the Apennines; the Carpathian chamois is very
dark-coloured, and the one from the Caucasus is the representative of
yet another race. A thick under-fur is developed in the winter-coat, as
in all other ruminants dwelling at high altitudes. Chamois are
gregarious, living in herds of 15 or 20, and feeding generally in the
morning or evening. The old males, however, live alone except in the
rutting season, which occurs in October, when they join the herds,
driving off the younger bucks, and engaging in fierce contests with each
other, that often end fatally for one at least of the combatants. The
period of gestation is twenty weeks, when the female, beneath the
shelter generally of a projecting rock, produces one and sometimes two
young. In summer they ascend to the limits of perpetual snow, being only
exceeded in the loftiness of their haunts by the ibex; and during that
season they show their intolerance of heat by choosing such
browsing-grounds as have a northern exposure. In winter they descend to
the wooded districts that immediately succeed the region of glaciers,
and it is there only they can be successfully hunted. Chamois are
exceedingly shy; and their senses, especially those of sight and smell,
very acute. The herd never feeds without having a sentinel posted on
some prominence to give notice of the approach of danger; which is done
by stamping on the ground with the forefeet, and uttering a shrill
whistling note, thus putting the entire herd on the alert. No sooner is
the object of alarm scented or seen than each one seeks safety in the
most inaccessible situations, which are often reached by a series of
astounding leaps over crevasses, up the faces of seemingly perpendicular
rocks, or down the sides of equally precipitous chasms. The chamois will
not hesitate, it is said, thus to leap down 20 or even 30 ft., and this
it effects with apparent ease by throwing itself forward diagonally and
striking its feet several times in its descent against the face of the
rock. Chamois-shooting is most successfully pursued when a number of
hunters form a circle round a favourite feeding ground, which they
gradually narrow; the animals, scenting the hunters to windward, fly in
the opposite direction, only to encounter those coming from leeward.
Chamois-hunting, in spite of, or perhaps owing to the great danger
attendi