256 Mr. Blyth on the Genus Ovis. 



tain Goat, that its absolute identity is probable, in which case it 

 would be curious that a species so very nearly allied to the genus 

 Ovis should yet differ from it so considerably in the character speci- 

 fied. The South American animal adverted to is the Aploceros 

 Mazama of Col. Smith, and is probably congenerous with the Pudu 

 of the Chilian Andes mentioned by Molina, (the existence of which 

 would appear to have been lately re^ascertained by M. Gay,) and 

 also with the fossil Antilope Mariquensis of Dr. Lund : there would 

 indeed appear to be other living species of this type, more or less 

 distinctly indicated by different authors. 



14. 0. Aries, Linnaeus : the Domestic Sheep. Assuming that dif- 

 ferent species have commingled to produce this animal, as appears 

 to be very evident in the instance of the Dog, it is still remarkable 

 that we have certainly not yet discovered the principal wild type, or 

 indeed any species with so long a tail as in many of the domestic 

 breeds, which I cannot doubt existed also in their aboriginal pro- 

 genitors : nothing analogous is observable among the endlessly di- 

 versified races of the domestic Goat, which all appear to have been 

 derived exclusively from the Caucasian C. JEgagrus ; and as in my 

 former paper I suggested the probability that a wild Sheep more 

 nearly resembling the domestic races than any hitherto discovered 

 would yet occur somewhere in the vicinity of the Caucasus, it now 

 appears that such an animal does exist in central Persia, as noticed 

 in my description of 0. Gmelini : nor should it be forgotten that 

 Hector Boetius mentions a wild breed in the island of St. Kilda, 

 larger than the biggest Goat, with tail hanging to the ground, and 

 horns longer and as bulky as those of an Ox'''. Pennant remarks 

 upon this subject, that such an animal is figured on a bas-relief, 

 taken out of the wall of Antoninus, near Glasgow. 



Of all the wild species of true Ovis that have been here described, 

 the Rass [Kutch-gar] of Pamir approaches nearest to O. Aries in the 

 character of its horns, though differing in one particular, besides 

 size, that has been pointed out ; namely, that the two front angles 

 are about equally developed ; whereas in O. Aries, as in the Moufflon, 

 the inner angle is more acute to near the base. Some experience in the 

 deduction of the specific characters of sheep-horns enables me to state 

 with confidence, that the normal character of the long-tailed domes- 

 tic breeds of Europe, and also of most other breeds, is intermediate 

 to that of the Rass and that of the Moufflon, combining the flexure 

 and the prolongation of the former with the section of the latter, 

 but becoming proportionally broader at the base than in either ; more 

 as in the Argalis of Siberia, Kamtschatka, and North America. 

 That O. Aries is totally distinct from all, I have been long perfectly 

 satisfied, and examination of the Rass in particular has strongly 

 confirmed me in this opinion. I think it likely, however, that more 

 than one wild species have commingled to form the numerous do- 

 mestic races, though certainly not any that have been described in 

 this paper. It is not very long since the question was habitually 



* Two crania of sheep, apparently male and female, from the Irish peat, 

 in the possession of the Earl of Enniskillen, and exhibited some time ago 

 at a meeting of the Geological Society, are probably of this race. 



