250 Mr. Blyth on the Genus Ovis. 



of the same general form as those of the Burrhel and Nahoor ; but 

 the dimensions specified are very superior to those attained in the 

 instance of either of the two Himalayan species adverted to, and I 

 can only suppose that the (reverted ?) tips had been broken off, and 

 the truncated extremity w^orn smooth. The wild sheep of Caucasus 

 and Taurus are at present little known, nor does any notice of this 

 genus occur in the catalogue of Caucasian animals published by M, 

 Men^tries ; though it is nevertheless certain, from the vague inci- 

 dental notices of various travellers, that some, and not unlikely se- 

 veral, exist. At Azaz, by the foot of Taurus, Mr. Ainsworth men- 

 tions having seen an animal which he designates Ovis Ammon {vide 

 'Travels in Assyria, Babylonia, and Chaldea,' p. 42). 



9. O. Gmelini, nobis (the Armenian Sheep). This species 

 belongs to the Moufflon group, but is yet very different from the 

 Moufflon Sheep of Corsica. It is described and rudely figured in the 

 Reise durch Russland (vol. iii. p. 486, and tab. Iv.) of the younger 

 Gmelin ; and the skull and horns, forwarded by that naturalist to St. 

 Petersburgh, have been figured and described by Pallas in his Spi- 

 cilegia (Fasc. xii. p. 15, and tab. v. fig. I.). Messrs. Brandt and 

 Ratzeburg erroneously identified it, at the suggestion of M. Licht- 

 enstein, with the wild Cyprian species, the horns of which have a 

 nearly similar flexure. Fine specimens of the male, female, and 

 young, lately received by this Society from Erzeroom, enable me to 

 give the following description ; 



Size of an ordinary tame sheep, with a remarkably short coat, 

 of a lively chestnut-fulvous colour, deepest upon the back ; the limbs 

 and under parts whitish, with few traces of dark markings, except a 

 finely contrasting black line of more lengthened hair down the front 

 of the neck of the male only, widening to a large patch on the breast ; 

 and in both sexes a strip of somewhat lengthened mixed black and 

 white hairs above the mid joint of the fore-limbs anteriorly, which 

 corresponds to the tuft of 0. Tragelaphus ; tail small, and very slen- 

 der : horns of the male subtrigonal, compressed, and very deep, with 

 strongly marked angles and cross -striae, diverging backwards, with a 

 slight arcuation to near the tips, which incline inwards. As regards 

 the flexure alone, but not the character of the horn, which is allied 

 to that of the Common Ram, this handsome species links the Moufflon 

 group with the Nahoor and Burrhel group. See Plate V. 



Length nearly 5 feet from nose to tail ; the tail 4 inches ; from 

 nose to base of horn 8 inches, and ears 3^ inches. Horns (about 

 full-grown, or nearly so,) 20 inches over the curvature, 10 round at 

 base, 4 deep at base inside, their widest portion 2 feet apart, and 

 tips 21 inches, with a span of 13 J inches from base to tip inside; 

 their colour pale. Around the eye and muzzle this species is whi- 

 tish ; the chaffron and front of the limbs are more or less tinged with 

 dusky, and its coat is rather harsh, and fades considerably in bright- 

 ness before it is shed. Female generally similar, but smaller, with 

 no black down the front of the neck, and in the observed instances 

 hornless. The lengthened black hair of the male is only 1 inch long, 

 and that composing the tuft on the fore-limbs is so disposed that 

 the latter is white in the centre, flanked with blackish. 



