Mr. Blyth on the Genus Ovis. 19? 



probably normal, and the habitat also proves to be different from that 

 anticipated, — namely, the Taurus, which I have still reason to sus- 

 pect contains a large undescribed species of this genus ; — I here pro- 

 pose to dedicate the present splendid animal to the illustrious Vene- 

 tian traveller of the thirteenth century, by the name of Ovis Polii. 



As compared vrith the Rocky Mountain Sheep of North America, 

 the Rass or Roosk of Pamir differs in having the horns considerably 

 'less massive, but more prolonged, approaching more in character to 

 those of the domestic O. Aries, but differing again from the latter, not 

 only in their very superior size, but in having their two front angles 

 about equally developed. As in the Rocky Mountain species, and I 

 believe also the 0. Aries normally, the pair at first diverge back- 

 ward, and then descend and gyre round at a parallel with the axis 

 of the body, inclining, as they again spire backwards, more outward 

 to the tip. The horns described were in their seventh year of 

 growth, and measure 4 feet 8 inches in length, following the 

 curvature, and 14|^ inches round at base, having the tips, which are 

 continued round till they point obliquely backwards, 45 inches apart. 

 The width of their upper plane is 3 J inches at base, 2J inches at the 

 distance of one foot from the base, and 2^ inches at 2 feet distance 

 from the base ; the depth of the base inside is 5 inches, and distance 

 apart of the pair, measured outside, where they gyre forward at a 

 parallel, 21 inches. The years of growth are successively 15 J, 10§, 

 13, 8, 5, 3, and the last (incomplete) I, inches. The College of 

 Surgeons' specimen, a single horn, was in its eighth year of growth, 

 but measures only 4 feet 4 inches round the curvature ; its depth 

 towards the base is 6 inches, and greatest width, about the middle, 

 2|- inches. The successive annual growths are 12^, 9, 8, 8, 7, 5, 

 3 J, and the incipient eighth 1, inches. It is curved in a spiral in- 

 volution, and scarcely outwards for three-fifths of a circle, when it 

 gradually inclines more so to the tip, the horn describing one circle 

 and about a third. When upon the head, it must accordingly have 

 gyred considerably inward, instead of descending at a parallel with 

 the other, as indeed is almost invariably the case with the domestic 

 O. Aries. Both specimens are of a pale colour, and indented with 

 rugged transverse striae, in general half an inch apart. Of the 

 animal nothing further is yet known. Considering, indeed, the dif- 

 ferences of the two specimens, it is by no means improbable that 

 they will yet prove to be of allied rather than of the same species, 

 in which case my former name of 0. sculptorum might be retained 

 for that to which it was applied. 



2, 3, and 4. The museums of Western Europe do not, that I 

 can learn, contain any portion of the Siberian Argali, Ovis Ammon of 

 Pallas, that might serve for comparison with the Rocky Mountain 

 Sheep of North America, 0. montana of Desmarest; but as the Kam- 

 tschatka Argali is described as a distinct species, O. nivicola, by M. 

 Eschscholtz in his * Zoologischer Atlas,' (differing from the two pre- 

 ceding in its inferior size, and in wanting, it would appear, the pale 

 disc surrounding the tail, so conspicuous in both the others,) the 

 probability is thus enhanced, that the Siberian and Rocky Mountain 



