[1] For the prehistoric civilization of the peninsula as a whole see
SPAIN.
[2] P. A. Boudard's _Études sur l'alphabet ibérien_ (Paris, 1852).
and _Numismatique ibérienne_ (Béziers, 1859); Aloiss Heiss, _Notes
sur les monnaies celtibériennes_ (Paris, 1865), and _Description
générale des monnaies antiques de l'Espagne_ (Paris, 1870); Phillips,
_Über das iberische Alphabet_ (Vienna, 1870), _Die Einwanderung der
Iberer in die pyren. Halbinsel_ (Vienna, 1870); W. M. Flinders
Petrie, _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ xxix. (1899) 204, and above all E.
Hübner, _Monumenta linguae Ibericae_.
[3] W. van Eys, for example, "La Langue ibérienne et la langue
basque," in _Revue de linguistique_, goes against Humboldt; but
Prince Napoleon and to a considerable extent A. Luchaire maintain the
justice of his method and the value of many of his results. See
Luchaire, _Les Origines linguistiques de l'Aquitaine_ (Paris, 1877).
[4] Compare the interesting résumé of the whole question in Boyd
Dawkins's _Early Man in Britain_ (London, 1880).
IBEX, one of the names of the Alpine wild goat, otherwise known as the
steinbok and bouquetin, and scientifically as _Capra ibex_. Formerly the
ibex was common on the mountain-ranges of Germany, Switzerland and
Tirol, but is now confined to the Alps which separate Valais from
Piedmont, and to the lofty peaks of Savoy, where its existence is mainly
due to game-laws. The ibex is a handsome animal, measuring about 4½ ft.
in length and standing about 40 in. at the shoulder. The skin is covered
in summer with a short fur of an ashy-grey colour, and in winter with
much longer yellowish-brown hair concealing a dense fur beneath. The
horns of the male rise from the crest of the skull, and after bending
gradually backwards terminate in smooth tips; the front surface of the
remainder carrying bold transverse ridges or knots. About 1 yd. is the
maximum recorded length of ibex-horns. The fact that the fore-legs are
somewhat shorter than those behind enables the ibex to ascend mountain
slopes with more facility than it can descend, while its hoofs are as
hard as steel, rough underneath and when walking over a flat surface
capable of being spread out. These, together with its powerful sinews,
enable it to take prodigious leaps, to balance itself on the smallest
foothold and to scale almost perpendicular rocks. Ibex live habitually
at a greater height than chamois or any other Alpine mammals, their
vertical limit being the line of perpetual snow. There they rest in
sunny nooks during the day, descending at night to the highest woods to
graze. Ibex are gregarious, feeding in herds of ten to fifteen
individuals; but the old males generally live apart from, and usually at
greater elevations than, the females and young. They utter a sharp
whistling sound not unlike that of the chamois, but when greatly
irritated or frightened make a peculiar snorting noise. The period of
gestation in the female is ninety days, after which she
produces--usually at the end of June--a single young one which is able
at once to follow its mother. Kids when caught young and fed on goat's
milk can be readily tamed; and in the 16th century young tamed ibex were
frequently driven to the mountains along with the goats, in whose
company they would afterwards return. Even wild ibex have been known to
stray among the herds of goats, although they shun the society of
chamois. Its flesh is said to resemble mutton, but has a flavour of
game.
[Illustration: The Ibex (_Capra ibex_).]
By naturalists the name "ibex" has been extended to embrace all the
kindred species of wild goats, while by sportsmen it is used in a still
more elastic sense, to include not only the true wild goat (known in
India as the Sind ibex) but even the short-horned _Hemitragus hylocrius_
of the Nilgiris. Dealing only with species zoologically known as ibex,
the one nearest akin to the European kind is the Asiatic or Siberian
ibex (_Capra sibirica_), which, with several local phases, extends from
the northern side of Kashmir over an enormous area in Central Asia.
These ibex, especially the race from the Thian Shan, are incomparably
finer than the European species, their bold knotted horns sometimes
attaining a length of close on 60 in. The Arabian, or Nubian, ibex (_C.
nubiana_) is characterized by the more slender type of horn, in which
the front edge is much narrower; while the Simien ibex (_C. vali_) of
Central Abyssinia is a very large and dark-coloured animal, with the
horns black instead of brownish, and bearing only slightly marked front
ridges. The Caucasian ibex (_C. caucasica_), or tur, is a wholly
fox-coloured animal, in which the horns are still flatter in front, and
thus depart yet further from the ibex type. In the Spanish ibex (_C.
pyrenaica_) the horns are flattened, with ill-defined knobs, and a
spiral twist. (See GOAT.) (W. H. F.; R. L.*)
IBIS, one of the sacred birds of the ancient Egyptians. James Bruce
identified this bird with the _Abu-Hannes_ or "Father John" of the
Abyssinians, and in 1790 it received from Latham (_Index
ornithologicus_, p. 706) the name of _Tantalus aethiopicus_. This
determination was placed beyond question by Cuvier (_Ann. du Muséum_,
iv. 116-135) and Savigny (_Hist. nat. et mythol. de l'ibis_) in 1805.
They, however, removed it from the Linnaean genus _Tantalus_ and,
Lacépède having some years before founded a genus _Ibis_, it was
transferred thither, and is now generally known as _I. aethiopica_,
though some speak of it as _I. religiosa_. No attempt can here be made
to treat the ibis from a mythological or antiquarian point of view.
Savigny's memoir contains a great deal of matter on the subject.
Wilkinson (_Ancient Egyptians_, ser. 2, vol. ii. pp. 217-224) added some
of the results of later research, and Renouf in his _Hibbert Lectures_
explains the origin of the myth.
The ibis is chiefly an inhabitant of the Nile basin from Dongola
southward, as well as of Kordofan and Sennar; whence about midsummer it
moves northwards to Egypt.[1] In Lower Egypt it bears the name of
_Abu-mengel_, or "father of the sickle," from the form of its bill, but
it does not stay long in that country, disappearing when the Nile has
subsided. Hence most travellers have failed to meet with it there[2]
(since their acquaintance with the birds of Egypt is limited to those
which frequent the country in winter), and writers have denied generally
to this species a place in its modern fauna (cf. Shelley, _Birds of
Egypt_, p. 261). However, in 1864, von Heuglin (_Journ. für
Ornithologie_, 1865, p. 100) saw a young bird which had been shot in the
Delta, and E. C. Taylor (_Ibis_, 1878, p. 372) saw an adult which had
been killed near Lake Menzal in 1877. The story told to Herodotus of its
destroying snakes is, according to Savigny, devoid of truth, but Cuvier
states that he discovered partly digested remains of a snake in the
stomach of a mummied ibis.
The ibis is somewhat larger than a curlew, _Numenius arquata_, which
bird it resembles, with a much stouter bill and stouter legs. The head
and greater part of the neck are bare and black. The plumage is white,
except the primaries, which are black, and a black plume, formed by the
secondaries, tertials and lower scapulars, and richly glossed with
bronze, blue and green, which curves gracefully over the hind-quarters.
The bill and feet are also black. The young lack the ornamental plume,
and in them the head and neck are clothed with short black feathers,
while the bill is yellow. The nest is placed in bushes or high trees,
the bird generally building in companies, and in the middle of August
von Heuglin (_Orn. Nord-Ost-Afrikas_, p. 1138) found that it had from
two to four young or much incubated eggs.[3] These are of a dingy white,
splashed, spotted and speckled with reddish-brown.
Congeneric with the typical ibis are two or three other species, the _I.
melanocephala_ of India, the _I. molucca_ or _I. strictipennis_, of
Australia, and the _I. bernieri_ of Madagascar, all of which closely
resemble _I. aethiopica_; while many other forms not very far removed
from it, though placed by authors in distinct genera,[4] are known.
Among these are several beautiful species such as the Japanese
_Geronticus nippon_, the _Lophotibis cristata_ of Madagascar, and the
scarlet ibis,[5] _Eudocimus ruber_, of America. The glossy ibis,
_Plegadis falcinellus_, found throughout the West Indies, Central and
the south-eastern part of North America, as well as in many parts of
Europe (whence it not unfrequently strays to the British Islands),
Africa, Asia and Australia. This bird, believed to be the second kind of
ibis spoken of by Herodotus, is rather smaller than the sacred ibis, and
mostly of a dark chestnut colour with brilliant green and purple
reflections on the upper parts, exhibiting, however, when young none of
the rufous hue. This species lays eggs of a deep sea-green colour,
having wholly the character of heron's eggs, and it often breeds in
company with herons, while the eggs of all other ibises whose eggs are
known resemble those of the sacred ibis. Though ibises resemble the
curlews externally, there is no affinity between them. The _Ibididae_
are more nearly related to the storks, _Ciconiidae_, and still more to
the spoonbills, _Plataleidae_, with which latter many systematists
consider them to form one group, the _Hemiglottides_ of Nitzsch.
Together these groups form the sub-order _Ciconiae_ of the order
_Ciconiiformes_. The true ibises are also to be clearly separated from
the wood-ibises, _Tantalidae_, of which there are four or five species,
by several not unimportant structural characters. Fossil remains of a
true ibis, _I. pagana_, have been found in considerable numbers in the
middle Tertiary beds of France.[6] (A. N.)