ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 611 



But the main factor which has assured success . . . took origin in the great 

 Sierra de Credos. . . . 



In 1905, when the ibex were about at their last gasp, the proprietors of the 

 Nucleo central, which we may translate as the Heart of Credos, of their own 

 initiative, ceded to King Alfonso XIII. the sole rights-of-chase therein, and 

 His Majesty commissioned the Marquis of Villaviciosa de Asturias to appoint 

 an adequate force of guards. 



The ceded area comprised all the best game-country [of the Sierra de Credos]. 



In 1896 we estimated the stock of ibex at fifty head, and during the fol- 

 lowing years it fell far below that by 1905 almost to zero. In 1907, after 

 only two years of "sanctuary," it was computed by the guards that the total 

 exceeded 300 head. . . . 



Though the hill-shepherds in summer drive out their herds of goats to 

 pasture on the higher sierra, when they may come in contact with their wild 

 congeners, yet no interbreeding has ever been known; nor can the wild ibex 

 be domesticated. Wild kids that are captured invariably die before attaining 

 maturity. . . . The ibex . . . can never have been the progenitor of the race 

 of goats now domesticated in Spain. 



Chapman and Buck also remark (1910, p. 219) : "When Don 

 Manuel Silvela . . . was here twenty years ago [1876], some 150 

 ibex were driven past his post above the Laguna de Gredos. Not a 

 quarter of that number now [1896] survive in all the range." 



"The . . . Sierra de Francia in the Salamanca Province, and the 

 Toledo Mountains, where it does not exist to-day, formed parts 

 of its range sixty years ago, and it has been found in the Sierra 

 de Bejar, between the Sierras of Francia and Gredos, so recently 

 as 1897" (Cabrera, 1911, p. 964). "The colony [on the Sierra de 

 Gredos] consists of about three hundred and fifty head, and having 

 been under royal protection since 1905 it is rapidly improving" 

 (Cabrera, 1911, p. 966). Now [1914] their number is probably about 

 500 head (Cabrera, 1914, p. 320). 



Of late years the prospects for the remaining Ibex in Spain seem 

 to have become very discouraging. "I hear privately from a friend 

 who has just come back from Spain that the situation [in regard 

 to Ibex] is extremely bad and that no effort is being made to check 

 poaching" (Martin Stephens, in litt., May 25, 1936). 



No more recent information is at hand. It may be remarked, 

 however, that the aftermath of wars usually creates a difficult period 

 for the game of any country. 



Mediterranean Ibex. Cabra monies (Sp.) 



CAPRA PYRENAICA HISPANICA Schimper 



Capra hispanica Schimper, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. [Paris], vol. 26, p. 318, 

 1848. ("Picacho de Veleta et du Mulahacen," in the Sierra Nevada, south- 

 ern Spain.) 



FIGS.: Rosenhauer, 1856, pis. 1, 2; Chapman and Buck, 1910, pi. facing p. 152, 

 figs. B, D; Cabrera, 1911, pi. 52, and p. 968, fig. 195 C; Cabrera, 1914, 

 p. 313, fig. 81-bis C. 



