ON THE SPANISH IBEX. 963 



43. The Subspecies of the Spanish Ibex. 

 By Prof. Angel Cabrera, (J.M.Z.S. 



[Received May 13, 1911 : Read June 13, 1911.] 

 (Plates LII.-LIY.* and Text-figures 194-199.) 



The first scientific description of a Spanish Ibex was that 

 published in 1833 by F. Cuvier, in the great iconographic work 

 ' Histoire Naturelle des Mauimiferes,' pi. 396. It was based on 

 a young male from the Pyienees, of which the author gave 

 a beautiful figure in winter pelage, but was not accompanied by 

 any technical name. In the index of the work, published in 1842, 

 the animal is erroneously called Capra ibex, the fact being 

 apparently ignored that four years before Schinz had described 

 the same form of Goat under the name Cajyra jnjrenaica f. 



In volume xxvi. (1848) of the ' Comptes Rendus ' of the Paris 

 Academy of Science, Schimper briefly mentioned the Ibex of the 

 Andalusian sierras, naming it G. hisjxmica and considering it as 

 quite a difierent species, a view followed by all the authors of the 

 time, and sustained still in our own days by Porsyth Major % 

 and Graells §. Modern zoologists, however, seem to agree in 

 admitting only one species of Spanish Ibex, though admitting that 

 there are some dififerences between the specimens coming from the 

 Pyrenees and those from other parts of the Peninsula. Sclater H 

 considers the latter as a " slightly altered phase " of the former ; 

 and Trouessart, in his ' Conspectus Mammalium Europge,' 

 expresses the same idea in a more modern fashion, describing 

 two different subspecies : Capra pyrenaica, from the " chaine des 

 Pyrenees," and C. pyrenaica hisjKinica, from the " chaines de 

 montagnes de I'Espagne Centrale et Meridionale." 



I do not intend to discuss now the meaning of the terms species 

 and subspecies. While awaiting a satisfactory and universally 

 accepted definition of these words, I agree with other authors in 

 considering all the Spanish Wild Goats as belonging to a single 

 species ; but as to the number of subspecies, I think there are, 

 not two, but three at least, the Ibex of Central Spain being quite 

 different from both the Pyrenean and the Andalusian forms. 

 This view has been anticipated by Menegaux in Perrier's ' Yie 

 des Animaux,' as he says that " la forme qui habite les sierras du 

 centre de la Peninsule fait le passage entre les deux formes 

 susnommees " {pyrenaica and hispanica). This central subspecies 

 remains, however, unnamed and undescribed as a diflferent form, 

 and to name and describe it are the chief purposes of the present. 

 paper. 



* For explanation of the Plates see p. 977. 



t Neue Denksclir. Allg. Schweiz. Ges. Nat. ii. 1838, p. 9. 



J Atti Soc. Tosc. Sc. Nat. iv. 1879, p. 2. 



§ Memorias Acad. Cienc. de Madrid, xvii. 1897, p. 356. 



II P. Z. S. 1886, p. 315. 



