22 SHORT STALKS 



appearing in tlie macquia, and have to be refound again 

 and again before a stalk can be successfully effected. 

 When they are alarmed or " at gaze," they have a 

 hal^it, or at least the rams have, of placing themselves 

 in the middle of a bush of 'macquia, or in the shadow 

 which it casts. The ewes, who are naturally less con- 

 spicuous, do this in a less degree. The mouflon are 

 also assisted by the wonderful alertness of their eyes. I 

 do not think that they see at a great distance, but they 

 detect an exceedingly slight sign at a moderate range. 

 On one occasion I got up to a small l)and at so high a 

 level, that there was no covert at all except that of rocks. 

 They were two hundred yards off at least, and feeding 

 away, and, the ground being bare, I could see that there 

 were no outliers — that fruitful source of unaccountable 

 alarms. Yet the moment I looked over with all the 

 usual precautions, my cap, which closely matched the 

 rocks, was " picked up," and the alarm communicated to 

 the whole lot. No deer or chamois that I am acquainted 

 with would have detected so slight a movement at that 

 distance. This exjjerience was repeated on several occa- 

 sions. The Sards have a fable relating that a hair, which 

 fell from the head of a hunter, was smelt by the wild boar, 

 while the stag heard it, and the moulion saw it. When 

 startled they whistle as a chamois, and as a Highland 

 sheep occasionally does. 



One of their favourite devices is to seek for spots on 

 the lee side of a ridge where the currents of air meet. 

 Here, in otherwise favourable positions, they are quite 

 unapproachable. And the worst of it is, there is no 

 means of finding it out until the stalker, after sur- 



