138 WILD SPAIN. 



The young ibex are born in April, and soon learn to 

 follow their dams — graceful little creatures, like brown 

 lambs, easily captured if the mother is shot, but not other- 

 wise. One is the usual number, but two is not infrequent. 

 It is a curious fact that the kid remains with its dam 

 upwards of a year — that is, till after a second family has 

 been born. Consequently it is usual, in spring, to see the 

 females in trios — the mother, her yearling daughter, called 

 the chirata, and the new-born kid, or ckiro. Though, as 

 just stated, there are often two young, yet we have never 

 seen more than one chirata with each female ibex — pos- 

 sibly it is only the female kids that remain so long with 

 their dams. In May the chivatas are conspicuously smaller 

 than the adult females, but their horns are nearly as 

 large. 



At this season (April-May) the ibex are changing their 

 coats ; the males have almost entirely lost their flowing 

 beards, and in colour assume a hoary, piebald appearance, 

 especially on cheeks and forequarters, contrasting with the 

 darker portions above and behind. The muzzle is warm 

 cream-colour, and the lower part of the leg (below the 

 knee) prettily marked with black and white ; on the knee, 

 a callosity, or round patch of bare hard skin. The horns 

 of yearling males are larger and heavier than those of 

 adult females. 



Though it is the custom of the hill-shepherds during 

 summer to drive out their herds of goats to pasture on the 

 higher ranges of the sierra, where they must sometimes 

 come in contact with their wild congeners, yet no inter- 

 breeding takes place; nor can the race of wild ibex be 

 reduced to domesticity. The hunters frequently capture 

 the young ibex — it is sometimes given as an excuse for 

 killing the dam — yet they rarely survive long in captivity, 

 and never mate with the domestic goat. In May we 

 could not hear of a single wild kid of the previous year's 

 capture that had survived the twelvemonth in any of the 

 hill-villages of Gredos. The form of the horns in the 

 domestic goat is essentially different ; they are much 

 flatter, thinner, and not a quarter as large as those of the 



