200 Mr. Blyth on the Genus Ovis. 



my observation was in lat. 46° 14' 55", and long. 121° 17' 0"." 

 Forbes, in his recent work on California, appears to allude to it by 

 the name of Berindo, which in Mexico is applied to the Antilocapra 

 furcifera. He quotes, however, the description by Venegos, inclu- 

 ding the statement that it has a short tail, and remarks, that " they 

 still abound in the plains at the foot of the mountains, and are 

 always found in large herds." It does not, from the context, appear 

 to me that the prong-horned animal is intended. 



From these we might proceed, through the domestic Aries, to 

 the species generally typified by the Moufflon of Corsica ; but I shall 

 interpolate a small group from the Himalaya, and apparently Cau- 

 casus, distinguished by having smooth and sub -cylindrical horns, 

 that form a bold arc outwards at nearly right angles with the axis 

 of the body, and have the tip turned backward. Such is 



6. 0. Nahoor, Hodgson ; the Nahoor or Nervati, and Sna (not 

 Sha) of Thibet. Size of the larger breeds of tame sheep, with pale 

 horns, and general colour dull brownish grey in old animals, with 

 the ordinary dark markings on the face, breast, and limbs, more or 

 less developed. Younger specimens, more particularly, have their 

 coat, when renovated, tipped with a light fulvous tint, deeper along 

 the middle of the back ; the tail is bushy, and conspicuously white, 

 its medial portion generally dark. Length, as given by Mr. Hodg- 

 son, 4 feet from nose to base of tail, and height of the back 32 

 inches. A female was 3 feet 4 inches from nose to tail, and stood 

 29 inches high at the shoulder. From nose to between the horns 

 a male measured 8| inches ; the ears 4^ inches ; and tail 4 inches, 

 or 7 inches to the end of the hair. A pair of horns in the museum 

 of this Society, which are far from having attained their full growth, 

 measure 12 inches in circumference at base, and 20|^ inches long 

 over the curvature, having their tips 27 inches asunder : their suc- 

 cessive annual growths were respectively 6|, 4, 3, 2J, 2J, and 1|, 

 inches. Mr. Hodgson mentions a pair that were each 32 inches 

 long. Those of a very old female in the British Museum have pre- 

 cisely the same curvature as in the male, only that the tips do not 

 turn so much backwards ; they are, however, much compressed, and 

 measure 9 J inches long, 4 J inches round, with the tips 14 inches 

 apart. Another female, in the collection of this Society, is entirely 

 destitute of horns. The latter, and a young male which I formerly 

 examined at Mr. Leadbeater's, accorded perfectly with the descrip- 

 tion of Mr. Hodgson, having pale slaty-blue hairs, deeper on the 

 back, and tipped with a rufous tint, more particularly on the back, 

 which caused the animal to appear of a pale fulvous or isabelline 

 hue. An old male in the museum of the Linnsean Society*, and the 

 aged female in the British Museum, together with another skin 

 which I have seen, have not only no trace of this colour in their 

 present state of pelage, but I doubt whether they showed much of 

 it when their coat was new : the colour of all three is a dingy grey- 

 brown, not easy to express in words. 



* Mistaken for Ovis Ammon in the * Fauna Americana-borealis,' vol. i. 

 p. 274, and for a second specimen of 0. Burrhel in Part 6, p. 79, for July 

 10th, 1838, of these 'Proceedings,' 



