Alaskan Bighorn 219 



I saw perhaps fifty head, and secured twelve specimens. I was very 

 careful in my study ot these interesting animals, and I found them to be 

 unitormly marked, both in colour and general characteristics. 



" The youngest ot the three now in the museum was secured August 

 8th 1896, in a very deep and rocky caiion, just at the base of one of the 

 highest peaks in this part of the mountains. At the time I discovered 

 him he was all alone, carefully making his way down the canon, and trom 

 what I afterwards learned I am very much inclined to believe he was then 

 in quest of the ewes, lambs, and yearlings in the edge of the timber farther 

 down the mountain side, and it is quite likely that he had not yet 

 regularly taken up the company of the older rams. The two older 

 specimens were taken on August loth, about five miles distant from 

 the first, and were the only ones in the bunch. I watched them an 

 entire afternoon before killing them. They passed the time alternately 

 nibbling at tiny bits of grass occasionally seen peeping from crevices 

 in the rocks, and playing or lying down on patches of snow and ice. 

 They were very fat. Specimens taken two months later possessed 

 the same markings." 



c. Alaskan Race — Ovis can.adensis dalli 



Ovis moutaua Ju//i, Nelson, Proc. U.S. Mas. vol. vii. p. 13 (1884). 



Ovis dalli^ J. A. Allen, Bull. Aiuer. Mas. vol. i.\. p. 112 (1897); 

 Merriam, Proc. Soc. JVasliiiigtoii, vol. xi. p. 217 (1897) ' Nelson, Nat. 

 Geographic Mag. vol. ix. p. 128 (1898). 



Characters. — Stature not ascertained. Ears short and thickly haired. 

 Horns of adult male apparently generally similar to these of the Liard 

 river and North-Western races. In summer the coloration nearly uniform 

 dirty white, so that the caudal disk is invisible ; the dinginess of the white 

 over the entire body and limbs being apparently due to the tips of the 



