THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
January, but keep to much higher places above the snow-line, except at 
feeding hours, when they descend. 
Unless he is favoured with an invitation to take part in one of the drives 
organized by the King of Italy, the sportsman has little chance of seeing 
this fine animal in a wild state. 
The Spanish ibex is a smaller animal than the steinbok, measuring 
only some 32 inches at the shoulder. The beard in this species is long 
and narrow in old males. In summer the pelage is dark greyish -brown, 
with the nape of the neck, a line down the back, a band on the flanks, and 
a considerable portion of the legs, blackish brown; the sides of the face 
are brownish -white; in winter the upper parts are brownish -grey, with 
all the dark parts quite black and the inner sides of the thighs and back 
of the legs whitish; beard black and horns brown. 
The form of the horns of the male is half- spiral, the direction being 
at first upwards and outwards, but afterwards backwards and then, at 
the points, inwards. They are triangular in shape with a sharp inner edge, 
with the front surface irregularly divided into lateral ridges or knobs. 
The finest specimen I have seen and measured is in the collection 
formed by the late Sir Victor Brooke. It was killed by himself in the Pyre- 
nees and measures 31 inches in length. Another, mentioned by Chapman 
and Buck, measures 30 £ inches. 
Many British sportsmen have pursued this cunning animal, but few 
have succeeded in securing an adult male owing to its secretive habits, 
and its love of dense bush, caves or Alpine fastnesses, where the foot of 
man cannot tread. The best accounts of its pursuit are to be found in 
Messrs Chapman and Buck’s “ Wild Spain,” and in Mr E. N. Buxton’s 
“ Short Stalks.” In the former work it would appear that the Central 
Spanish race frequents the highest and most rugged peaks at elevations 
over 10,000 feet. In the Sierra de Gredos the herds sometimes number 
100 to 150 head, but are always most difficult either to drive or to stalk. 
On the other hand, in the Val d’Arras the bucks appear to go singly and to 
frequent dense scrub, where it is impossible to spy them with the glass. 
Accordingly the only chance for the sportsman is to get the local peasants 
to drive them, and even this expedient is seldom successful. In Central 
Spain the males keep apart from the females and young except during the 
breeding season. Occasionally they descend to the timber-line to feed, but 
always return to the inaccessible peaks during the day. In winter the 
females and ewes sometimes descend to the neighbourhood of the high 
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