Sierra Moréna rsa 
Mérito) has favoured us with latest details respecting both the 
ibex and other wild beasts therein. 
The wild-goat (he writes) is the most difficult of all game to shoot, 
proof of which is afforded by the fact that in the lands which I hold in 
the Sierra Quintana (although until recent years these were unpreserved 
and in the neighbourhood of a village where every man was a hunter) 
yet the local shooters had not succeeded in exterminating the species. 
Its means of defence, over and above its keen sight and scent, consist 
chiefly in the inaccessible natural caves of those mountains, in which the 
wild-goats invariably seek refuge the moment they find themselves 
pursued. - In these caves the goats were accustomed to pass the entire 
day, never coming out to feed except during the night. 
To-day (since free shooting has ceased) they begin to show up a 
little during daylight, and in other ways demonstrate a returning con- 
fidence. Nevertheless they display not the slightest inclination to 
abandon their old tendency to betake themselves, immediately on the 
appearance of danger, to the vast crags and precipices which lie towards 
the east of the sierra, and which crags afford them almost complete 
security. The most effective method of securing a specimen to-day is, as 
you know, by stalking (resécho). For this animal, when it finds itself 
suddenly surprised by a human being, is less startled than deer, or other 
game, and usually allows sufficient time for careful aim to be taken— 
indeed, it seems to be the more alarmed when it has lost sight of the 
intruder. 
The rutting season occurs in November and December, and the kids, 
usually one or two in number, are born in May, the same as domestic 
goats. These kids have a terrible enemy in the golden eagles, since their 
birth coincides with the period when these rapacious birds have their 
own broods to feed, and when they become more savage than ever. To 
reduce the damage thus done, I am now paying to the guards a reward 
for every eagle destroyed, and this last spring took myself a nest contain- 
ing one eaglet, shooting both its parents. 
The dimensions of horns I am unable to put down with precision, 
but there was killed here an ibex (which was mounted by Barrasona at 
Cérdoba) measuring 85 centimetres in length (= 334 inches). Of the 
last, which was killed by Lord Hindlip, as shown in photo I send, the 
length of horns was 68 centimetres (= 26? inches). 
The dimensions of the best ibex head obtained by us in this 
sierra were: Length, 28 inches; basal circumference, 84 inches. 
