ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 



613 



"The main chain of the Sierra Nevada constitutes one of the 

 strongholds of the Spanish ibex .... Though totally unprotected, 

 they yet hold their own a fair average stock survives along the 

 line of the Veleta, Alcazaba, and Mulahacen. This survival is due 

 to the vast area and rugged regions over which (in relatively small 



FIG. 55. Mediterranean Ibex (Capra pyrenaica hispanica). After 

 Lydekker and Ward. 



numbers) the wild-goats are scattered; but even more to the 

 antiquated muzzle-loading smooth-bores hitherto employed against 

 them. That moment when cheap, repeating cordite rifles shall have 

 fallen into the hands of the mountain-peasantry will sound the 

 death-knell of the ibex." (Chapman and Buck, 1910, pp. 302-303.) 

 Cabrera remarks (1911, pp. 965-966) on the Spanish Ibex being 

 "how reduced to a number of small isolated colonies by continued 

 persecution from the Middle Ages, when wild-goat meat was a very 

 favoured dish at every Spanish table." 



