HUNTING THE IBEX

A Wary and Cunning Animal: Dangers to be Faced

[Written for "The Press" by A. M. HAMILTON.!

THE old male ibex of the Kurdish Highlands with his knobbed horns curving over his grey-

and remain immovable as the rocks themselves behind a cairn of stones, hardly daring to move an eyelash. As the ground fog lifts a careful search may perhaps reveal some large animal with his flock. • If within range of a good flank shot one estimates the distance—always difficult in mountainous country—and, making due allowance, fires. There is usually no time to alter sights. A good shot may mean a kill, but a bad shot means that particular animal will clear off and not be seen again for the season. With a carefully arranged shooting party having an exact knowledge of the mountains it is sometimes possible for several rifles, concealed at different points, to get a chance of a kill as the animal passes through successive defiles, but usually the cunning old beasts will evade the most carefully planned trap and simply vanish amongst the rocks or into some canyon. They seem to have an infallible instinct as to where riflemen are placed. In Kurdistan a shooting party is one of the most convivial affairs imaginable, in spite of the fact that it is usually composed of the strangest assortment of people. During my four years in that country while engaged on road construction there was always a standing invitation from the local Kurdish chiefs to join them in their winter ibex shooting.

white back is perhaps the most agile animal in the world. He lives among the towering walls of rock that form the almost perpendicular faces of the Zagros mountains —inaccessible except to the fittest and surest-footed of men.

It is impossible to catch a glimpse of this noble creature except in the mating season in winter, when snow and ice upon the rocks add greatly to the dangers of climbing. At all other times of the year the large white bucks go into hiding, no one knows where, and only the small brown females and the younger males are to be found. But for a period of about 10 days in December the "old men," with their magnificent spread of horns, reaching back almost to their tails as they stand alertly on guard, will appear mysteriously and lead large herds of females. The most wary and cunning of creatures, they hear the slightest of ! -fouman sounds. At the rustle of a (garment behind a rock or the jstealthiest movement of a huntsman [•hundreds of yards away the old bull (is off over the precipices where he (knows crevices for foothold and jsecret tracks that no man, no snow lleopard or mountain cat can follow, [and only the silent hovering eagles can see. I

Each Shaikh has his mountain preserves for game as well as his cultivated lands. His position is somewhat that of a country gentleman in England or Scotland, and he takes the greatest possible pride in hospitality and in his shooting grounds. Invitations to Shoot The invitations to a shoot are written in Kurdish by the Shaikh's "mullah," and conveyed by the hands of tribesmen armed with the usual rifle and dagger who might walk many miles to deliver them.

With his enormous rump muscles ithe ibex can jump 20 feet almost pvertically from ledge to ledge, clawing the lichens catlike with his ihooves as he ascends; or else he can plunge downwards on to the narrow terraces, taking the shock of his fall on the battered and sometimes 'broken horns, turning somersaults and racing on round the face of the bluff at full speed. Once he is alarmed it is hopeless to try to shoot an old ibex. He moves like lightning among the rocks and dashes over the nearest c Jiff. If he should be hit by a lucky shot he is over and away nevertheless, and even if dying he will rush '0 some hopelessly inaccessible Place hundreds of feet below, finally to become a meal for the vultures or t - be swept off in a mountain torrent.

An invitation would say that the Shaikh wished "the Colonel and British Officers, and the Assyrian Officers of his Britannic Majesty's Assyrian Levy Battalion to do him the honour of joining him in his annual winter shooting, and regard themselves as his guests at his village." He requested that those invited would not fail him because food and arrangements were already being prepared. A similar invitation would be sent to the engineer at his road head camp.

Hunting is as dangerous for the huntsman as for the animal, and I nave known tribal mountaineers to *"p and fall to eternity from the "4jn cliffs.

A Dangerous Climb by Night Only in the early morning can one S« a chance of seeing or bagging an oid.ibex. To do this one has to climb 3 thousand feet or more by night up |ne narrow frost-glazed paths, wearing the soft woven-soled Assyrian |noes which have three great advantages over boots. They are silent, «£ Ve a good grip except in mud, and !jf e such agony to the European S? ot that the wearer forgets about *«e dangers of the ascent and the Sharp rocks below. instead of starting in the early corning one can climb in the aftert° on and spend the night in the shel--0 , ° f an open cave—probably with*h» bla nkets or camp fire—and wait daw hj th ° freezin 6 hours until tin a ? y caso onc niust be in posifcro u ovc tho animal before day•"eak, WJ th r ifi e sighted and ready

It was considered courteous to reply at once, and if the particular Shaikh had behaved well that year his invitation was usually accepted, even though a day and night were normally the most that could be .spared from duty at a time. Moreover, the tribesmen are poor people who cannot afford to entertain a large party lavishly for long. With very human pride they won't admit this and would be offended were it suggested. Needless to say, they would be insulted at any offer of payment, and the best that can be done is to give the Shaikh a few boxes of shot-gun cartridges for his old single-barrel, and the tribesmen a few rounds of rifle ammunition to make good the shots they have fired during the winter s-porl. (To be Continued,'