58 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



Rocky Mountains to Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains 

 and intervening- ranges. In California Rocky Mountain Big- 

 horns were formerly found in parts of the Sierra Nevada and 

 on Mount Shasta, but they are apparently now exterminated in 

 those mountains. It is possible that these animals w^ere not 

 canadoisis, but were nclsoni or some unnamed form. Material 

 is lacking now to determine this point, with little probability of 

 more being obtained. Two or three very small bands still exist 

 in certain mountains of southwestern California that are prob 

 ably intermediate between the above species and nelsoni. Poach- 

 ers are destroying them and their destruction is probable in a 

 few years. 



Ovis nelsoni Merriam. (For E. W. Nelson.) 



NELSON BIGHORN. 



General color above varying with season and locality from 

 pale ashy gray or pale dingy brown to dirty white ; rump patch 

 and back part of hams white; belly white; breast sometimes 

 brownish white but often slate gray; fore part of legs brownish 

 gray; tail and a narrow stripe on the rump drab gray and often 

 a drab gray stripe from the neck over the withers. 



Length of male about 1525 mm. (60 inches) ; tail verte- 

 brae 125 (5); hind foot 400 (15.75); ear from crow^n 130 

 (5.15); length of horn around curve 700 tO' 900 {2y to 35). 

 Length of female about 1400 (55); tail vertebrae no (4.33); 

 hind foot 375 ( 14.75) • ear from crown 130 (5.15) ; horn around 

 curve 280 (11). 



Type locality, Grapevine Mountains near Death Valley, Cali- 

 fornia. 



The range of the Nelson Bighorn appears to be southern 

 Nevada, southeastern California, the northeastern border of 

 Lower California and probably western Arizona. An adult male 

 Nelson Bighorn in good condition will weigh tw^o hundred and 

 fifty pounds and a female one hundred and fifty. They prefer hilly 



