The horns of the female ibex are weak and comparatively short—only some six or seven inches in length, not unlike those of the chamois, but not so sharply hooked. These do not grow annually: hence there is not the ready index of age afforded by the horns of the rams. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that the horns of goats are permanent, and not cast yearly as is the case with deer.
The following are the maximum dimensions of the heads of male ibex, measured by the authors—all from the central and south-Spanish sierras.
| Age. | Length. | Sweep. | Circumference. | |
| 1. | Five years | 18½ in. | 11½ in. | 9 3/8 in. |
| 2. | " | 27½ " | 23 " | 9 " |
| 3. | " | 28¼ " | 19 " | 8¾ " |
| 4. | " | 29 " | 18¾ " | 9 " |
| 5. | Aged | 29 " | 22½ " | 9¼ " |
| 6. | " | 29¼ " | 23¼ " | 9½ " |
Through the kindness of the late Sir Victor Brooke, we are also enabled to give the following measurements of his three best Pyrenean ibex heads.
| Length. | Sweep. | Circumference. | |
| A. | 26 in. | 21 in. | 10 in. |
| B. | 29 " | 23 " | 10 " |
| C. | 31 " | 26½ " | 8¾ " |
Sir Victor Brooke wrote:—"A. This was a very grand old ibex: but the points were broken and his horns rubbed smooth with age. The Pyrenean ibex are much larger beasts than those from the southern sierras."
The natural home of the ibex may be defined as exclusively amidst the summits of the wildest rock-mountains and most alpine spots upon earth—subject, however, to such, apparently accidental, variations of this general rule, as will be found hereinafter mentioned. Here their hollowed hoofs and marvellous agility enable them to traverse, at full speed, ice, crag, and precipice that seem absolutely impassable, and to mount rock-walls where no visible foothold exists, throwing into heart-breaking insignificance our puny efforts to encompass them. If a man's heart swells with the pride of strength—if he flatters himself that he is master of all the beasts of the field and of the arts of field-craft, let him try a campaign with the wild-goats—verily there is no sublunar undertaking better calculated to take the conceit out of him. Mere figures give but a poor idea: to say that the favourite haunts of ibex lie at altitudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, is hardly any real criterion of the difficulties and hardships of their pursuit. Suffice it here to say that the mere ascent to such heights occupies well-nigh a whole day: even when encamped among the fringe of the snow, the climb-out to the summits may still require two or three hours of the hardest work.
Ibex are found throughout the highlands of the Peninsula, from Pyrenees to Mediterranean, but not continuously—their haunts being distinct and separated by intervening plains. They inhabit all the Pyrenees[30] and are comparatively numerous on the hills round Andorra (Pyrénées orientales). In the south their great strongholds are the Sierras Nevada and Morena, where herds of twenty, thirty, or even fifty, may sometimes be seen together. Besides these main southern haunts, the ibex have several detached colonies in the hill-ranges of Andalucia and Estremadura. Along all the elevated cordillera of Central Spain, the ibex find a congenial home: but their chosen stronghold is in the extensive Sierra de Gredos. This elevated point is the apex of the long Carpeto-Vetonico range which extends from Moncayo through the Castiles and Estremadura, forming the watershed of the Tagus and Douro; it separates the two Castiles, and passing the frontier of Portugal, is there known as the Serra da Estrella, which (with the Cintra hills) extends to the Atlantic seaboard. Along all this extensive cordillera there is no more favourite ground for the ibex than its highest peak, the Plaza de Almanzor, 10,000 feet above sea-level. During the winter and early spring the wild goats have a predilection for the southern slopes towards Estremadura: but in summer and autumn large herds, often numbering dozens, and especially the noble rams, make their home in the environs of Almanzor and the lonely alpine lakes of Gredos.
Our personal experiences of the Spanish ibex are limited to four points—two in the southern sierras, and two on the central cordillera: in three of which the habits of the goats exhibited some very remarkable variations. These, however, we describe more particularly when treating of ibex-shooting in other chapters.