Notes on the Fauna of North Western Spain. 



339 



only half a dozen. One specimen was shot there a few years ago by 

 the King; a young one was caught alive in 1891, a photograph 

 of which I owe to the kindness of my friend Mr. A. Tait of Oporto. 

 In the summer of 1885 I made an unsuccessful attempt to stalk these 

 „cabras bravas", as they are called by the Portuguese. 



This goat was first recorded from the Gerez by Prof. Barboza 

 du Bocage. It certainly does not occur now in the Serra d'Estrella, 

 or on the Serra de Monchique in the Algarve. Its present distribution 

 in Spain is still wide, extending over the 

 whole of the Pyrenees, the whole ränge 

 of the mountains from the Sierra Nevada 

 to the Sierra de Ronda, the Sierra de 

 Gredos, Sierra de Avila and parts of the 

 Sierra Morena. Lord Lilfoed at least 

 is in possession of a very fine specimen 

 from the ränge last-named. From Infor- 

 mation received at the Sierra de Picos, 

 I think that this goat occurs also on the 

 Sierra da Pena negra, to the S.-W. of 

 Leon. In former times it must have been 

 much more common and more universally 

 distributed over the higher mountain ranges 

 of the Peninsula, for otherwise its now 

 very sporadic occurrence would be diffi- 

 cult to explain. 



This wild goat was first described 

 by Schinz in 1838 as different from the Ibex of central Europe, and 

 his figure of the young (on tab. 3 of his work) is very much like 

 the photograph reproduced on plate 12. It is wrong to apply the name of 

 Ibex to this very distinct and isolated species, which is essentially a 

 goat, if the shape, bend and formation of the horns be of any taxo- 

 nomic importance. The wild goats from the Sierra Nevada do not 

 diifer from the northern specimens, unless the former ones have some- 

 what longer and more upright horns, but these are subject to much 

 individual Variation and according to age change considerably in curva- 

 ture, direction, diameter and surface moulding. 



Of all the wild goats Capra pyrenaica, resembles most C. 

 pallasi from the Eastern Caucasus, except that in the latter the 

 transverse section of the horns is triangulär with rounded off Cor- 

 ners (hence the name C. cylindricornis given by some authors) 



«Vt!<VC 



Capra pyrenaica. 

 From Sierra Nevada. 



Adult <$. 



