There remain notes of later vernal developments in these beautiful sierras; but alas! this chapter is already too long, so over the taffrail they go. CHAPTER XXXVI SERRANÍA DE RONDA (_Continued_) II. THE SIERRA BERMEJA The Sierra Bermeja, standing on Mediterranean shore, demands a page or two if only because it affords a home to three of Spain's peculiar and rarer guests--the pinsápo, the ibex, and the lammergeyer. Our earlier experience in Bermeja, our efforts to study its ibex--and to secure a specimen or two--are told in _Wild Spain_. Suffice it here to say that the characteristic of these Mediterranean mountains is that here the ibex habitually live, and even lie-up (as hares do), among the scrubby brushwood of the hills--a remarkable deviation from their observed habits elsewhere, whether in Spain, the Caucasus and Himalayas, or wherever ibex are found. But since brushwood clothes Bermeja and other Mediterranean hills to their topmost heights, the local wild-goats have literally no choice in the matter. Still, such a habitat must strike a hunter's eye as abnormal, and is, in fact, a curious instance of "adaptation to environment."[62] During December 1907 we spent some days in Bermeja in an attempt to stalk the ibex--a difficult undertaking when game is always three-parts hidden by scrub. On former occasions we had secured a specimen or two by stalking (here called _raspagéo_) and "driving"; but whatever chance there might have been was this time annihilated by incessant mists enshrouding the heights in opaque screen. Thus another carefully organised expedition and unstinted labour were once more thrown away! [Illustration: LAMMERGEYER [Drawn from life in Sierra Bermeja, March 1891.]] On December 19 we drove the "Pinsapal." This, commencing near the highest tops, 5000 feet, extends down a tremendous conch-shaped ravine, merging at the base into pine-forests--chiefly, we believe, _Pinus pinaster_. This "drive" lasted two hours, mist sometimes densely thick, at others clearing a little; but only allowing a view varying from twenty to eighty yards. This, coupled with constant drip from the gigantic pinsápos and a bitter wind blowing through clothes already soaked, was ... well, comfortless and pretty hopeless to boot. Twice the dogs gave tongue--and it could be nothing but ibex here; while D., who was posted on the left, heard the rattling of hoofs as a herd passed within, as he reckoned, 200 yards. A second lot, followed by dogs, was heard though not seen on the extreme right. The pinsápos at this season, and in such weather, form a favourite resort, for we saw more sign hereabouts than on the high tops. A _levante_ wind in winter always means mist--and failure. The ibex in winter hold the high ground unless driven down by snow. In spring and summer they come lower--even to cork-oak levels--presumably to avoid contact with tame goats, then pasturing on the tops.