224 Sheep 



in the winter coat, although of the usual dark colour. And examples 

 shot by Dr. Guillemard in September, which had likewise assumed their 

 winter dress, were also dark coloured. In the Museum at Tring Park 

 there is, however, the head of a white bighorn killed in Kamschatka 

 during winter. From this it would seem that these sheep are dark- 

 coloured on the first assumption ot the winter coat in autumn, but that 

 as winter advances the hairs of this coat turn pure white, precisely in the 

 manner of those of the common stoat in many parts of its habitat. 

 Whether, however, all the individuals of the race thus whiten, or whether 

 the change is restricted to those inhabiting the coldest districts, remains 

 to be determined. 



Distrihiitloii. — -Typically the countries forming the northern shores of 

 the Sea of Okhotsk, namely the peninsula of Kamschatka on the east 

 and the Stanovoi Mountains on the west, and apparently also the Chukchi 

 country to the north, so that the distributional area not improbably 

 includes the districts bordering on Bering Strait. There is also con- 

 siderable evidence that the range probably extends eastwards through 

 Northern Siberia near to, it not to, the valley of the Yenisei. Middendorff, 

 for example, convinced himself of the existence of a wild sheep eastward 

 from the Yenisei in about latitude 67° N., in the Sywerma Mountains, near 

 the sources of the river Cheta. And it is probably the present or a closely 

 allied race that Severtzoff described under the name ot O. horcal'is. The 

 sheep in question was first obtained trom the Chalunga and Pjasina valleys 

 in Northern Siberia, and was said to be intermediate between ammon and 

 nivico/d, although much nearer the latter, ot which it might turn out 

 to be only a variety. Subsequently the same naturalist wrote ot it as 

 follows : — 



" Very near to Ovis nhicola is another, as yet not properly identified 

 sheep from North Siberia, from the mountains which separate the basins 

 of the rivers Nyjnaya and Tungasca, tributaries of the Yenesei, from that 



