1^8 Mr. Blyth on the Genus Ovis. 



species are not the same, however closely they may resemble. The 

 descriptions of O. Ammon would seem to apply in every particular to 

 the O. montana, though it is still probable that actual comparison of 

 specimens would lead to the detection of some discrepancies, as ge- 

 nerally, but not always, happens in like cases. I may notice, that 

 while Mr. Drummond affirms that the horns of old rams of O. mon- 

 tana " attain a size so enormous, and curve so much forwards and 

 downwards, that they effectually prevent the animal from feeding 

 on level ground*," the same had previously been remarked by Strah- 

 lenberg of the Argalis of Siberia t, and no doubt is equally obser- 

 vable in the Rass of Pamir. The finest specimen of a head of the 

 Rocky Mountain animal, of seven heads of adult males examined, 

 is in the collection of this Society, and gives the following admea- 

 surements : horns 3 feet 5 inches over the front ridge, and 17;^ inches 

 round at base, where the front angles are 4J inches apart. They 

 number nine years of growth, which successively give 9, 7 j, 6^, 5, 

 4i, 4, 2^, \\, and 1, inches. They are nearly equilaterally tri- 

 angular, but bulge a little between the angles, having the inner or 

 front angle obtusely prominent, the posterior double, or forming a 

 second plane at a slight angle with the superior one, and the infe- 

 rior angle (if such it can be called) much rounded off : the greatest 

 depth of the horn is about 6 inches ; from base of front angle to tip 

 they measure 11 inches; and the tips apart 26 inches. They are 

 everywhere strongly furrowed across, more particularly in front, the 

 intervals between the grooves swelling out considerably ; and they 

 gradually become, as in all the rest of the genus, more compressed 

 to the extremity. 



Of the O. nivicola of M. Eschscholtz, that naturalist writes : 

 " The specimen described is a male in winter garb, measuring 5 feet 

 (French ?) in total length, and 2 feet 5 inches high. Its outer coat 

 is of a yellowish grey colour, brighter on the under parts, and in- 

 clining to straw-yellow on the head and neck; the markings in front 

 of the limbs are of a rust-colour«: horns equilaterally triangular, 3 

 inches thick at base, and gyring outwards to form one complete 

 spiral tjircle, 10 inches in diameter, and having their points directed 

 outwards and forwards ; the upper and posterior portions of the horn 

 are level, and marked with deep annual indentations, which success- 

 ively measure 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, and 1^, inches, making eight years 

 of total growth ; besides which, there are numerous minor indenta- 

 tions or ordinary cross-strise, but no protuberant intervals." From 

 the figure they would seem not to bulge between the angles, as is 

 usual, though not invariably the case, with the Rocky Mountain 

 species ; as also to be somewhat more tensely spiral, as if pulled a 

 little outward. The appearance both described and figured at the 

 base of the fore-limbs externally, I suspect to be nothing more than 

 the axilla, that had been twisted outwards in the mounting of the 

 specimen. M. Eschscholtz describes this animal to be very nume- 



* Fauna Americana-borealis. 



t Description of the northern parts of Europe and Asia. — Eng. Transl., 

 p. 332. 



