MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 37? 



This race (at first regarded as a distinct species) was described by Mr. A. 

 O. Hume in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1877, on the 

 evidence of the skull of a ram from the Kelat district of BaluchistaD, in 

 which the tips of the horns curve outwards, so as to form a very open spiral. 

 So open, indeed, is the spiral that a portion of the inner surface (which in 

 other urial is completely concealed) is visible in a front view. In a skull from 

 Kelat, in the British Museum, the spiral is, however, much less open, and 

 there is no marked outward divergence of the tips, still it must evidently 

 belong to the same race. Moreover, the presumption is that the urial from 

 the rest of Baluchistan and Afghanistan, and, in fact, from the Trans- 

 Indus districts in general, likewise belong to 0. v. blanfordi, as the Indus must 

 almost certainly form an impossible barrier to these sheep. In confirmation 

 of this view, it may be mentioned that the horns of a very fine male urial 

 obtained by Dr. Aitchison, when on the Delimitation Commission in Afghan- 

 istan, show a tendency to form an open spiral, and have very prominent 

 front angles. In another head in the British Museum, from the hills north 

 of Peshawar, the front angles are more prominent than in any urial I have 

 ever seen, and are also raised into a number of knobs, but there is no 

 decided tendency to an out-turning of the tips, although the spiral is rather 

 open. It is practically certain that the specimen is racially distinct from the 

 true urial of the Cis-Indus districts. On the other hand, an urial head figured 

 on page 383 of the third edition of Rowland Ward's Horn Measurements, 

 shows a decided outward turn of the tips of the horns, and, in fact, appears 

 to be very similar in this and other respects to the type of 0. blanfordi. The 

 specimen, which is the property of Major H. F. Taylor, is stated to be from 

 " the Punjab, " and there is accordingly nothing to prevent its having come 

 from the Trans-Indus districts. If the owner could confirm this in the columns 

 of the " Field" he would strengthen the evidence in favour of the distinctness 

 of 0. v. blanfordi. 



As regards the third race of the species, namely, the true urial (0. v. cycloceros) 

 of the Salt Range and other hills of the Cis-Indus districts of the Punjab, this 

 appears to be a smaller and redder animal than either of the preceding, with 

 the horns forming a very close spiral, and showing no tendency to turn out at 

 the tips, while their front angles are not prominent, and the anterior one is 

 often more or less rounded off. 



Finally, we have the Kopet-Dagh urial (0. v. arkal), from the range dividing 

 Persia and Turkestan, in which, as exemplified by a fine skull presented by Mr. 

 St. George Littledale to the British Museum, the front surface of the horns 

 is very broad and nearly flat, with but few transverse wrinkles, and very 

 prominent front angles. 



Any additional information, and more especially photographs, which would 

 help to solve the urial question, would be acceptable. 



R. L. 



(The above appeared in the " Field, " 2ith December 1904.) 

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