These deer are not indigenous, but were introduced by the Romans, probably from Asia Minor; and are, as at home, more or less private property. At the same time they exist in a perfectly wild state, and quite unenclosed, at several places—especially in the neighbourhood of Madrid, where the Royal estates of Aranjuéz, Rio-frio, El Pardo, &c., have tended to disseminate a wild race outside their boundaries.
The Spanish fallow deer are of the spotted axis-like type.
The Roebuck in Spain.
(Cervus capreolus.)
Though plentiful in the wooded ravines of the sierras, where it frequents sapling-thickets in preference either to scrub or forest proper, yet the roe is seldom made a special object of pursuit. The few roebuck—in Spanish, corzo—that have fallen to our guns have been killed when in pursuit of pig or other game.
Yet to this deer we owe as narrow an escape as can be faced; while roe-shooting in the Sierra de la Jarda, and riding along a precipitous goat-track, a projecting crag barred the way: in rounding the obstruction, it was necessary that the horses should simultaneously make an upward step or two on a sort of rock-stair. During this awkward manœuvre, one jaca brought his flank sharply in collision with the crag, struggled for one desperate moment to recover equilibrium, and then plunged, broadside on, down the precipice. His rider, springing from the stirrups, clutched a retamo bush, and thus hung suspended "between the devil and the deep." Poor Bolero fell crashing through the ilexes that clung to the crag—we could hear the smashing of branch after branch as he broke his way downwards. We descended to recover the gun, saddle, and equipments from the killed horse; but, to our amazement, found him quietly grazing—the gun still in the slings, the bridle over his nose—hardly, beyond a cut or two, the worse for his adventure. The fall was over 100 feet, but the stout branches of ilex and chaparro, with a marvellous measure of luck, had saved his life.
Roebuck, in Spain, are mostly killed with large shot (slugs), not ball; and to those who are content with this game, nearly all the southern sierras would yield a measure of sport, combined with occasional chances at pig, and this often on unpreserved grounds.
Roe are confined to the mountains—never found on the plains.
The Spanish Ibex (Capra hispanica).
Of the Cabra montés we have already treated (chapters xi. to xiii., pp. 128-172), and now add some notes which we contributed to the Badminton Library through our friend Mr. C. Phillipps-Wolley, the editor of the Big Game volumes.
