184 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



three full-grown males are to be found. When frightened 

 they collect together as a flock of sheep will do, and 

 similarly follow the leader of the herd. In Pleistocene 

 times this animal ranged over northern Siberia, Germany, 

 France, and England, but in the present day it is con- 

 fined to the more northern parts of North America and 

 the shores of the Arctic Sea. It extends through the 

 Parry Islands and Grinnell Land to East Greenland, 

 and is found in Sabine Island. Sir J. Richardson tells 

 us that when the animal " is fat, its flesh is well tasted 

 and resembles that of the caribou, but has a coarser 

 grain. The flesh of the bulls is highly flavoured, and 

 both bulls and cows, when lean, smell strongly of musk, 

 their flesh at the same time being very dark and tough.'' 

 But the observations of Major Feilden show that the 

 flavour of its flesh varies much from some unknown 

 cause, independently of age, sex, or the season of the 

 year. 



The group of goats and sheep is a numerous one. 

 Among the former (which includes some dozen species), 

 may be mentioned the ibex, the markhoor, and the thar 

 All the goats are mainly confined to southern Europe 

 and northern and central Asia. There are about twelve 

 kinds of sheep, whereof the big-horn, or mountain sheep, 

 is the only kind which is naturally an inhabitant of the 

 New World, where it was never domesticated. Wild 

 sheep are all but exclusively confined to central Asia, 

 but the aoudad inhabits the mountains of northern 

 Afiica, and the moufSon, Corsica and Sardinia. The 

 bharal is found in the Himalayas and the argali in Mon- 

 golia. Sheep are naturally dwellers in mountainous 

 regions, and none voluntarily take to forests, swamps, or 

 level plains. A fossil sheep resembling the argali has 

 been found in England, otherwise the sheep is not 



