Cyprian Muflon 163 



them, the deep snow which generally covers that part of the country 

 impeding their movements. At other times they are shy, and, owing 

 to the scarcity of covert, very difficult to approach. The severe winter 

 ot 1873-74, which was so fatal to the tame breeds of sheep, also destroyed 

 a great number of the wild species. Gmelin's sheep is a very graceful 

 animal, deer -like in its appearance, having long, fine limbs, and in the 

 male a thick, bushy throat." 



/;. CvPRiAN Race — Ovis orientalis ophion 



Ovis ophion, Blyth, Proc. Zoo/. Soc. 1840, p. 69; Brooke, ibiJ. 1875, 

 p. 526 ; Alston and Danford, ihld. 1880, p. 59 ; Biddulph, ihiiL 1884, p. 594, 

 pi. Ixviii. ; Langkavel, Zoo/. Garten, vol. xxxii. p. 183 (1891) ; Ward, 

 Recori/s of Big Game, p. 256 (1896). 



Ovis cyprius, Blasius, Sciuget/iiere Dei/tsc/i/am/s, p. 473 (1857). 



Caprovis op/iioii. Gray, Cat. Ruminants Brit. Mus. p. 56 (1872). 



C/iaracters. — Smallest of all wild sheep, the height at the shoulder 

 being only about ib\ inches. Horns of male with the outer front angle 

 so completely rounded off that the outer and front surfaces are merged 

 into one ; entire horns less massive and more slender than in the typical 

 race, and also curving more regularly from base to tip, with the transverse 

 wrinkles less fine. General colour of upper-parts bright foxy-red or 

 rufous-fawn, with a few scattered whitish hairs on the sides of the body 

 forming an incipient saddle-mark ; a line down the middle of the withers, 

 a band on the flanks continued on to the thighs, the tip of the upper 

 surface of the tail, a broad streak down the middle of the chest, showing 

 a tendency to develop into a patch on the lower part of the throat, front 

 of fore-legs above the knees, and a patch on the inner side of the thighs 

 above the hocks black or blackish ; under-parts, a narrow line on the 

 buttocks, the inner surfaces of the thighs and of the fore-legs above the 

 knees, as well as the whole of the legs below the knees and hocks, together 



