. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . and piorno, as well as certain narcissi,mountain-berries, and the peasants scant crops of rye-grass. For this latter luxury they are tempted to comedown rather lower : but under no circumstances, not evenin winter, are the ibex of Gredos or Nevada found in theforests or amongst covert of any kind. Such, in outline, are the habits of the ibex of the highersierras. But ibex also exist on mountain-ranges of muchlesser elevations, and there their habits difter widely. Someof these lower hills are covered
. Wild Spain ... records of sport with rifle, rod, and gun, natural history and exploration . and piorno, as well as certain narcissi,mountain-berries, and the peasants scant crops of rye-grass. For this latter luxury they are tempted to comedown rather lower : but under no circumstances, not evenin winter, are the ibex of Gredos or Nevada found in theforests or amongst covert of any kind. Such, in outline, are the habits of the ibex of the highersierras. But ibex also exist on mountain-ranges of muchlesser elevations, and there their habits difter widely. Someof these lower hills are covered with brushwood to their verycrests—one has pines on its summit, at 4,800 feet. Herethe ibex cannot, of course, disdain the shelter of the scrub,and even frequent the forests at much lower have hunted them in ground that looked far more suit-able for roe-deer, and have even seen the rootings of pigoverlapping the feeding-grounds of the goats. THE SPANISH IBEX. 135 In such situations, the ibex form regular lairs amidstthe fastnesses of broom, gorse and thorny ahohuja, on the. SPANISH IBEX, OLD RAM. (Side view. bloom of which they browse by night, without having todescend or to shift their quarters at all. On these lowerhihs the ibex owe their safety—and survival—exclusively 136 WILD SPAIN. to the rough and intercepted nature of the ground, over-grown for miles with forest and matted brushwood;and, in some degree, to their own comparatively smallnumbers.* A third very distinct habitat we have described in detailelsewhere. Here, on an isolated mountain, detached fromthe adjoining sierras, and affording neither the refuge ofsnow-fields nor jungle, the mother-wit of a segregatedband of ibex managed to discover a sanctuary scarcelyless secure. As elsewhere described, they simply shutthe door on pursuit Ijy betaking themselves into theclefts and crannies of a hanging rock-wall some threemiles long and 2,000 feet high. To these eagles eyries noother terrestrial being
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