2174 Thk Zoologist — Junk, 1870. 



and evidently sought to take l)im at a disadvantage; but by facing 

 round suddenly, and showing a bold front, he at length succeeded in 

 scaring the creature away. This was corroborated by another gentle- 

 man, who was pursued on one occasion in Spain during a snow storm 

 by a pack of five or six, and who thought himself fortunate to escape 

 by taking refuge in a tenia, which chanced to be near the spot. 

 Amidst the mountains, and in the valleys of the Gerez, also dwells 

 the wild boar, which is the prince of ground game in Portugal, as the 

 bustard stands at the head of the feathered list, and of which we had 

 heard many a hunting exploit, and whose shaggy forms and formidable 

 tusks we had also admired at Coimbra. One of our informants assured 

 us he had killed several which had weighed over twelve score pounds : 

 they will run at great speed for ten or twelve miles, but in Portugal 

 the}' are never followed by mounted sportsmen as in India, but are 

 simply roused from their retreats, and shot. When wounded and at 

 bay, they are not to be approached by dog or man with impunity, for 

 the wounds they inflict with their long, sharp tusks are often so severe 

 as to cause the death of the rash assailant, whether canine or human. 

 Another wild animal which inhabits these desolate mountains is the 

 southern or pardine lynx {Lyncus pardlnus), which must not be con- 

 fused with the common European lynx {Lyncus virgnlus), which I have 

 seen brought down by a hunter from the maritime Alps above Nice; 

 but this is a far more handsome animal, spotted like a leopard, and 

 withal a savage cruel beast, partaking of the nature of the wild cat, 

 but even fiercer as well as larger and stronger than that daring 

 marauder. Here, too, as I am informed, may be occasionally found 

 the beautiful and graceful genett [Geuella tiyriiia), an active, supple- 

 limbed, nocturnal marauder, which stealthily surprises its victims on 

 the ground and on the trees, where it is equally at home. But the 

 great prize, par excellence, of the wild mountains of Gerez, which the 

 sportsman will risk life and limb to obtain, is the ibex, wild goat, 

 bouquetin, or izzard (Capra Ibex), which may be described generally 

 as a sort of reddish-coloured chamois, the most wary and the most 

 active of its tribe, which frequents the nearly inaccessible heights of 

 the mountains, and is as difficult to hunt as the chamois of the Alps. 

 There was also a rumour that an occasional specimen of the mouflon, 

 or large wild sheep, might be met with in these mountain solitudes; 

 but after diligent inquiry, I am obliged to conclude that the report had 

 no foundation in fact ; and that if this animal exists in the Peninsula 

 at all, it is confined to the wilder portion of the Pyrenees, to which the 



