The Spanish Ibex 145 
fields, its security doubly assured by sentinels, whenever such 
are deemed necessary: or, lower down, in the caves of a sheer 
precipice. Only after sun-down do the ibex descend, and never, 
even then, so far as timber-line. On these loftier sierras their 
home by day is confined to rock and snow; by night to that 
zone of moss, heath, and alpine vegetation that intervenes 
between the snow-line and topmost levels of scrub and conifer. 
Such are the ibex of the loftier ranges—Grédos and Nevada. 
But in the south, wild-goats are found on mountains of inferior 
elevation, 4000 to 6000 feet, many of which are jungled—some 
even forested—to their summits, and there they cannot disdain 
the shelter of the scrub. We have hunted them (within sight 
of the Mediterranean) in ground that appeared more suitable 
to roe-deer, and have seen the ‘‘rootings” of wild-pig within 
the ibex-holding area. 
In such situations the wild-goats take quite kindly to the 
scrub, forming regular “airs” wherein they lie-up as close as 
hares or roe. Amidst the brushwood that clothes the highland 
—heaths and broom, genista, rhododendron, lentiscus, and a 
hundred other shrubs—they rest by day and browse by night 
without having to descend or shift their quarters at all. On 
these lower hills the ibex owe their safety, and survival, to 
the vast area of covert, and, in less degree, to their comparatively 
small numbers. So few are they and so big their home, they are 
considered ‘“ not worth hunting.” 
During summer the ibex feed on the mountain-grasses, rush, 
and flowering shrubs which at that season adorn the alpine 
solitudes ; later, on the berries and wild-fruits of the hill. By 
autumn they attain their highest condition—the beards of the 
rams fully developed and their brown pelts glossy and almost 
uniform in colour. At this period (September to October) the 
rutting season occurs and fighting takes place—the champions 
rearing on hind-legs for a charge, and the crash of opposing horns 
resounds across the corries of the sierra. Even in spring 
memories of the combative instinct survive, for we have watched, 
in April, a pair of veterans sparring at each other for half an 
hour. 
The young are born in April and soon follow their dams— 
graceful creatures with unduly large hind-legs, like brown lambs. 
L 
