146 Unexplored Spain 
One is the usual number, though two are not infrequent. The 
kid remains with its dam upwards of a year—that is, till after a 
second family has been born. 
At that season (April to May) the ibex are changing their 
coats. The males lose the flowing beard and assume a hoary 
piebald colour, contrasting with the dark of legs and quarters, 
The muzzle is warm cream colour and the lower leg (below knee) 
prettily marked with black and white. On the knee is a callosity, 
or round patch of bare hardened skin. The horns of yearling 
males are thicker and heavier than those of adult females. 
Though the hill-shepherds in summer drive out their herds of 
goats to pasture on the higher sierra, where they may come in 
contact with their wild congeners, yet no interbreeding has ever 
been known; nor can the wild ibex be domesticated. Wild kids 
that are captured invariably die before attaining maturity. The 
horns of the herdsmen’s goats differ in type from those of the 
ibex, which can never have been the progenitor of the race of 
goats now domesticated in Spain. 
Though the personal aroma of an ibex-ram is strong—rather 
more offensive than that of a vulture—yet no trace of this 
remains after cooking. The flesh is brown and tough, but devoid 
of any special flavour or individuality—that is, when subjected to 
the rude cookery of the camp. 
