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Show 618 DR. M. MENZBIER ON A NEW CAUCASIAN GOAT. [Dec. 6, silvery, the upper parts with a blue, the sides with a bronze, tinge; the spinous portion of the dorsal is pale purple, the soft portion, the anal, and the caudal yellowish; pectorals and ventrals pinkish, the cheeks and opercles being also washed with the same colour. Irides golden. 6. O n a new Caucasian Goat (Capra severtzowi, sp. n.). By Dr. M . M E N Z B I E R , C.M.Z.S., Professor in the University of Moscow. [Received November 15, 1887.] In the lately published memoir of Mr. Eug. Biichner, " Zur Geschichte der kaukasischen Ture " l we have a carefully prepared treatise upon the present state of our knowledge of Capra caucasica and Capra cylindricornis (AEgoceros pallasii), as well as of their distribution and synonymy. But it seems that I am more fortunate than Mr. Biichner in the solution of the question what is the Capra caucasica oi Giildenstaedt, who very positively speaks on the "cornua" of this Goat as "retrorsum et extrorsum arcuata, apice denuo introrsum vergentia." During the last two years I have had an opportunity of receiving many skins, horns, and skulls of the Mountain-Goat from the northern Caucasus, and amongst them I have found at last the true Capra caucasica of Giildenstaedt. It is a Mountain-Goat inhabiting the region between Elbruz and Dykh-tau, and only mentioned by Mr. Dinnik in his pamphlet on the Caucasian Mountain-Goat. I do not understand either how such an excellent naturalist could maintain that the Mountain-Goat from the central part of the northern Caucasus is the same as the Mountain-Goat from the western half of this region, nor his conclusion that the western Mountain-Goat is the true Capra caucasica of Giildenstaedt. In the western and eastern or central Mountain-Goat of the northern Caucasus we have two quite different animals-the central being the true Capra caucasica of Giildenstaedt, in many respects assimilating to JEg. pallasii; the western, I think, being a species new to science, but erroneously described by Mr. Dinnik and Mr. Biichner as Capra caucasica. For this western Caucasian Goat I propose the name Capra severtzowi, in honour of m y friend Mr. Severtzow, to whom we are under great obligations for our knowledge of the different Wild Goats and Sheep. The subjoined descriptions of the Caucasian Mountain-Goats may serve to distinguish these two very different animals. CAPRA CAUCASICA, Giild. This Goat is a very graceful, handsome, and powerful animal, a little smaller than Capra severtzowi, but with enormous black horns. r Q ^nhlished in tlie M^m- Acad. Sc. St. P6tersbourg, s6r. vii. t. xxxv. |