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Show African Goats. A pair recently brought from Africa : has been added to the Central park col I lection of animals. I "There is no particular value attached I to the- animals, except from their rarity," I remarked Director Con If 1 in. "They are the tirst pair of Morocco goats probably 1 that ever found their way to this coun-i coun-i try. They are young, in their secoud I year, quite gently, as you see, and will j eat out of your hand. But if startled, 1 all their inherited wildness comes out. I 1 never saw such animals. They seem 1 to havy muscles of rubber, from the way j they jump. 1 have never had bo much trouble with the moat dangerous animals we have here. j j "The jumping of the thoroughbred j hunters in Madison Square garden a few weeks ago doesn't begin to compare with that of these goats. I put them In a 1 yard having a fence eight feet high, but ; they jumped it go easily that now I have ; a fence ten feet high. , ' "The space within their mclosure is so limited that they cannot get a good start to go so high, or 1 would not trust them with anything less than a fifteen foot j fence. Then, thoy are getting accus-1 tomed to these quarters and are not so easily alarmed as they were, but I think, if startled, they might still clear this fence, j Their leap is peculiar. They crouch a little, give a short jump in the air, and i as they strike tho ground bound upward again as if they were shot from a cata- pult. The muscles of their legs are ex-1 tremely tough, but the tegs are not j adapted for great rapidity or endurance in running. They havo been developed 1 by generations of climbing on the Mo- I , rocco lulls. As these goats got older j ! and their bodies. in captivity become! 1 heavier, they will probably become less 1 j active. Possibly our native goat has I lost his faculty of high jumping, If he ! ever had it, since he became partly civil-1 j ized and nccustomed to a diet of brown ; paper." Scientific American. ! |