Sha or Urial 169 



Distribution. — From Ladak, Zanskar, and apparently still more easterly 

 districts in Northern Tibet through Astor and Gilgit to Russian Turkestan 

 (Bokhara and Khiva), also throughout Afghanistan, Baluchistan, and 

 Southern Persia, and likewise in the Punjab and Sind Trans-Indus Ranges, 

 as well as in the Cis-Indus Salt Range of the Punjab. In Zanskar and 

 Ladak this sheep is found at elevations of trom 12,000 to 14,000 teet 

 elevation, but in Sind at or near the sea-level, in districts where the summer 

 temperature ranges exceedingly high. 



Habits. — With such a wide variety of station it is not to be wondered 

 at that this sheep varies to a certain extent in its habits according to 

 locality. In Ladak and Zanskar it is found in open more or less barren 

 valleys, where it may often be seen in numbers on the hillsides, at a 

 great elevation above the sea-level. On the other hand, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Astor and Gilgit urial mainly confine themselves to the grassy 

 tracts at moderate elevations below the belt of forest, which occurs high 

 up on the hills and receives more rain than the ground below. In the 

 Punjab Salt Range, Sind, Baluchistan, and Persia they frequent low hills 

 or undulating ground much intersected by ravines and gullies, being more 

 generally seen on scarped rocky hillsides than among bush and jungle. 

 Many of the rocks in the Salt Range where urial are common consist ot 

 bright red marls and sandstones, against which the rutous coat of the sheep 

 is almost invisible ; and this local coloration of the rocks may be the reason 

 that the Punjab urial is a brighter-coloured animal than the sha ot Ladak. 

 The number of ravines, separated from one another by narrow ridges of rock, 

 coupled with the slight elevation above the sea-level, renders urial-stalking 

 in the Salt Range fir less fatiguing than the pursuit of any other kind of 

 wild sheep accessible to Indian sportsmen. The number ot individuals in a 

 flock of urial varies from three or four to as many as about twenty or thirty ; 

 and although the rams frequently separate themselves during some part of 

 the summer, both sexes are commonly found in company. 



