18 INTRODUCTION. 



but it is extremely difficult to get them without organizing a 

 regular drive or batida a very expensive affair, requiring a 

 party of several guns, who must take tents, cooks, &c. up into 

 the mountains ; and then, if successful, as far as sport is 

 concerned it is hardly worth while sitting for several hours 

 behind a stone, nine times out of ten without even seeing an 

 ibex. It is very difficult to stalk them, as they lie hidden in 

 the thick stunted fir and other scrub which is scattered in large 

 patches on the mountain-sides, and are so wary that you cannot 

 come suddenly on them like roe-deer. However, in an ibex- 

 shooting expedition, one is amply repaid by the magnificent 

 scenery and the novelty of the affair ; but as far as shooting goes 

 it is a failure, and every ibex killed by a Gibraltar party costs 

 more than I should like to state. 



Ibex drop their young about the end of April ; on one 



occasion a shooting expedition with which I was present 



succeeded in getting two, both of which I sent home to the 



Zoological Gardens ; but unfortunately they did not long 



survive. 



I am informed that " Ibex, as late as 1830, frequented the 

 sierras above Algeciraz, but a disease which broke out among 

 the tame goats was communicated to the Ibex, who all perished." 



In the Sierra Morena, near Palma, a little to the west of 

 Cordova, are red deer strictly preserved and well pastured ; the 

 " heads " of the stags are very fine, which is not the case with 

 those of the Goto Dofiana, near San Lucar de Barrameda. 

 All these, however, being wood-frequenting deer, the antlers 

 do not branch out very widely, most of the heads being rather 

 narrow. It is in small-game shooting that Andalucia excels, 

 though it is in no way equal to that of the countries lying 

 east of the Mediterranean. Foremost, both in numbers and 

 sport, is Snipe-shooting ; for in some seasons, about November 

 and December, if the weather has been dry, it is equal to any 

 that can be obtained ; but all depends upon the weather, which, 



