THE SPANISH IBEX. 755 



[inferentially as late as the middle of the seventeenth century — 

 say 250 years ago] Ibex inhabited every suitable point of almost 

 every mountain-ridge in Spain," The only reason actually 

 adduced, however, is the prevalence of place-names based upon, 

 or compounded with, the Spanish word Cobra = goat. Such 

 names, it is true, are ubiquitous ; but it would never have 

 occurred to me that those names necessarily refer to the loild 

 goat. Spain is a land of goats, and many localities bearing names 

 such as Sierra de las Cabras, Cabrales, Cebrero, and so on, are not 

 at all adapted to the nature and requirements of the wild Ibex. 

 I would suggest that, in many cases, the names merely indicate 

 the existence of suitable local pasturage for domestic goats, which 

 are herded everywhere. 



Again, Dr. Cabrera translates the Spanish name of the Ibex, 

 Cobra monies^ as equivalent to " Mountain-Goat." Now it woidd 

 be nothing less than presumptuous for me, a foreigner with but a 

 limited colloquial knowledge of the Spanish tongue, to question 

 his rendering. I do not do so. I accept that as the pure classic 

 Castilian of Madrid. But I do venture to say that, in wilder 

 Spain, the term monte, with its derivative adjective inontes 

 (pronovmced niotitess), possesses quite a different signification, 

 Monte may occasionally, and in combination, be used to indicate 

 a hill or mountain ; but in its ordinary provincial sense, it signifies 

 scrub or brushwood. Thus the wild-cat, which is equally common 

 on lowland or sierra, is known as Gato mooites = Scrub-Cat : on 

 the low-lying plains of Andalucia or Estremadura, the expression 

 Reses mo7iteses includes all the scrub-haunting animals — such a,s 

 deer, wild-boar, lynx, etc. 



Now, viewed in this light, it has always appeared to me uttei-ly 

 inexplicable and incongruous to apply the name Cabra mantes, or 

 Scrub-Goat, to the Ibex of the higher ranges, such as the Sierias 

 de Gredos and Nevada, where the Ibex live exclusively amidst 

 rock-regions far above the topmost levels of scrub. But such 

 incongruity would disappear if Dr, Cabrera's assumption were 

 correct, that the Ibex, up to a couple of centuiies ago, occupied the 

 Avhole vast area shown in the map at p. 965, supra. Was such the 

 distribution, that name would become appropriate enough, since 

 an immense proportion of the dotted area consists, not of high 

 mountains at all, but of low scrub-clad hills. Such country 

 might appear, to preconceived ideas, totally unsuitable for Ibex : 

 but we have the fact before us (as fully explained in our books on 

 Spain) that in several of the lower Mediterranean sierras (some 

 of which are bush-clad to the summits) the local Ibex do to-day 

 take kindly to a bush-haunting habit. Indeed, in such situations, 

 it is obvious, they have no other option. 



This latter point tends to support Dr. Cabrera's assumption, 

 and equally, of course, undermines our own. 



In our two books we had pointed out that the Ibex of the two 

 extreme ends of Spain [i. e., those of the Pyrenees and those of 



