BOUQUETIN, or Inge of the Alps ((wpm ibex). a species of goat which inhabits the highest regions of the Alps, even higher and wilder than those inhabited by the chamois, up to the limits of perpetual snow. It is the ibex of the ancients. F•ett IBEX. In German Switzerland, its mime is xttiaboek. It was at one time found on all the higher Alps, but has disappeared from most of them, and exists chiefly on those between the Valais and Piedmont, where it is carefully protected by the Sardinian government. It is larger and more powerfal than the common goat, and has a small head and great horns (those of the male 11 to 2 ft. long), which curve backwards, are directed a little outwards, and have prominent transverse knots or bands on the front. The horns of the females arc wily about 6 in. long. The hoofs are large. rough on the sole, and capable of being spread widely apart, to give greater security of footing. The gencral color is brown. The hotly is covered with two kinds of hair, the longer hair being mixed, at least in winter, with thick soft wool. There is no beard, except a few hairs in winter, although the animal has been often incorrectly figured as having one.
The B. feeds on the herbage and small shrubs which are found on the last confines of vegetation, and descends by night tobrowse in the highest forests, the lichens and branches of which supply much of its winter food. It
is capable of enduring great cold, and will i remain, with seeming ndifiereuce, for hours on the samm:t of a rock, motionless, during the most severe storm. It possesses an extra ordinary power of bounding from crag to crag, and of ascending or descending almost perpendicular precipices. Even the projec tions of a wall of rough masonry have been seen to suffice for the feet of a tame one to take hold of. One has also been known fre quently to spring from the ground, without a race, and plant itself on a man's head.
Tschudi rejects as a fable the statement which has been repeated by one naturalist after another, from the days of Gesner, that the B.
throws itself down precipices, sc as to fall upon its horns, their elasticity preserving it from injury.
When taken young, the B. is easily tamed.
It readily associates with common goats, and breeds with them, and the hybrids produce young, of which. however, it does not appear that in any case both parents have been ascertained to be hybrids.
Whether this animal might not be made useful to the inhabitants of such countries as Iceland and Greenland, no one seems to have thought of trying.