176 Sheep 



males ; a more or less distinct white disk on the buttocks oi the rams ; the 

 face, more or less of the imder-parts, the inner surfaces ot the legs and their 

 front surfaces below the knees and hocks white ; outer surface of thighs 

 dark like the back. 



This species, which, although originally named by Linna'us, was first 

 adequately described by the Russian naturalist Pallas on the evidence ot 

 specimens obtained from Siberia, is the typical representative of that 

 exceedingly difficult and still very imperfectly known group of large 

 Asiatic sheep to which the name ot argali may be collectively applied. If, 

 as some sportsmen have suggested, all these great sheep are nothing more 

 than local races of one very variable species, the name O'V/s avDuon will be 

 the one which will have to stand. There seem, however, to be at least 

 three well-marked types of large wild sheep in Central and Northern Asia, 

 severally represented by Ovis ammoii^ O. po//\ and the Kamschatkan race of 

 the bighorn. And as I cannot satisfy myselt that the two tormer pass into 

 one another, while they are certainly distinct trom the latter, I think it 

 better, for the present at any rate, to regard them as distinct species, with 

 fewer or more local races. 



The general characters of the horns of adult rams of the typical race of 

 O. (U)iino>i are so ditFerent from those of the adult O. poll that there is never 

 any difficulty in distinguishing between the two animals, which are further 

 difierentiated by colour, the former having the outer surtace ot the thighs 

 coloured like the back, while in the latter it is white. In the Tibetan 

 race, where the horns are often more angulated, they are always much 

 more massive than those of poll, as well as considerably shorter. If inter- 

 mediate tonus between the ammoii and poll types are to be looked for any- 

 where, it is in the Altai, where they would most likely be found, since the 

 typical race of the former ranges into the northern districts of that area, 

 while a variety of the latter inhabits the more southern parts. And in the 

 British Museum there are certain Altai sheep referred to below which in 



