Mgoceros pyrenaica, Gray, Cat. Ungulata Brit. Mus. p. 147 (1852),;
Cat. Ruminants Brit. Mus. p. 52 (1872)!
Ibex pyrenaicus, Gervais, Hist. Nat. Mamm. vol. ii. p. 188 (18 5 5 );
Graells, Mem. Ac. Madrid, vol. _xvii. p. 353 (1897).
Ammotragus (?) pyrenaicus, Nathusius, Zool. Anzeiger, 1888, p. 333.
Plate X X II.
Characters^^BmXA lighter and face larger and narrower than in either
Fig. 49.—-Side view of head of adult male Spanish Tur with the beard fully developed.
of the Caucasian species ; the height at the shoulder reaching to 32 inches.
Horns rising close together on the skull ; triangular, with a sharp inner
edge, and the front surface irregularly knobbed towards the extremity
(where it becomes posterior in position), at base ridged ; the form an
open semi-spiral, the direction being at first upwards and outwards, but
afterwards backwards and inwards, frequently with an upward and slightly
outward terminal flexure, although, as in the other tur, the tips are
generally turned inwards. Beard confined to the chin ; long and narrow
in old males in the winter pelage (fig. 49) ; in the summer pelage, and
in young males at all seasons, reduced to an insignificant tuft (fig. 50).
Summer pelage fine and short ; winter dress longer and more shaggy.
In the former the general colour dark grayish-brown, with the nape of
the neck, a line down the middle of the back, a band on the flanks, and
the greater portion of the limbs black or blackish-brown; s id e s ® face
brownish-white. In winter the upper-parts light brownish-gray, with
the nape of the neck, a line down the back, a broad collar on the chest,
the shoulders, flanks, tail, the outer sides of the thighs, and the greater
portion of the legs blackish ;|pnner sides of thighs and back of legs whitish.
Beard and horns black.
The above description's taken from mounted specimens in the British
Museum, one of which is evidently an adult male in the summer dress,
while the other, judging from the slight development of the beard and the
length of hair on the head and body, seems to be an immature male in the
winter pelage. Heads of males with the full winter beard are figured by
Messrs. Chapman and Buck in Wild Spain.
In the form and character of the horns the Spanish wild goat is clearly
intermediate between the tur of the Caucasus and the true ibex, although
nearer to the former than to the latter. In its parti-coloured coat the
species is, however, more like the Persian wild goat and some of the ibex ;
but it may best be called a tur rather than an ibex.
The under-mentioned are some of the largest horn-measurements of the
Spanish tur given in Mr. Rowland Ward’s book:—