860 



Z()()L()GI(AI> SOCIETY Bin,LETIN 



Tlie spc'cinifiis iindtr notice at once strike the 

 observer as representing sometliing new in the 

 horns of American mountain sheep. A single 

 sj)ecimen, even of an extreme type, would readily 

 he accepted as an individual or freak develop- 

 ment ; but with six specimens, practicallj' from 

 the same locality, and another one coming- 

 greater than any in hand, it is in order to look 

 seriously into the question that they present. 

 The following comparative measurements are of 

 interest, because they represent four localities 

 and are strictly comparable, all being selected 

 heads. 



OyiS DALLI HORNS, SPREAD BETWEEN TIPS, (in inches). 



THE SAME HEADS. LENGTH ON CURVE. 



It is not often that the measurements of skulls 

 or horns tell a story as striking as that re- 

 vealed by the measurements of the four groups 

 of heads set forth above. It seems hardly neces- 

 sarj' to write down the conclusions thej' at once 

 suggest; but at the same time it may be well 

 to do so. 



These four groups of heads represent four 

 widely separated localities in the range of Ovis 

 (lain. On a map of northwestern America the 

 Kenai Peninsula, Ogilvie Mountains and Pelly 

 Mountains form a great triangle, near the center 

 of which is the locality which furnished the five 

 wide-horned sheep heads here noticed. 



The measurements show that the fifteen speci- 

 mehs composing Groups 2, S and 1 are not 

 noticeably different from one another. They do 

 not spread widely, and they are by no means 

 particularlj- long. In fact, they are all of the 

 same general type — small, of medium length, 

 and close in spiral. 



The five specimens in Group No. 1 , are 

 equally alike, but their great spread, great 

 length, and wide-open spiral place them abso- 

 lutely in a class by themselves. As yet we do 

 not know the western limit of the wide-horned 



sheep, but we venture the prediction that an 

 investigation of all the wide-horned Ovis dalli 

 ever sent out of the Northwest will reveal the 

 fact that they have come from Southwestern 

 Yukon Territory, or northwestward thereof, in 

 the direction of Mount McKinley. 



After an examination of these specimens, the 

 question naturally arises, what do they mean,'' 



Distinctly, I think they do not represent a 

 new sjiecies, nor even a sub-species. It is rea- 

 sonably certain that as the collector progresses 

 out'H'ard from the locality of the Disston-Potter 

 series, a complete series of intermediate horns 

 will be found, grading down to the standard 

 form of close-spiral horn architecture as found 

 in Ovis dalli generally throughout the best-known 

 ranges of that species. 



It is, however, my belief that in the locality 

 which furnished the wide-spreading horns de- 

 scribed above, we have found Nature virtually in 

 the very act of developing and striking off a 

 wide-horned and long-horned sub-species of Ovis 

 dalli. Having hazarded a guess that these shee|) 

 were developed in a region where sheep food 

 was particularly abundant and rich, Mr. Potter 

 immediately replied : 



"Yes; that locality is on the eastern slope of 

 the main range, where spring comes early, and 

 the food for sheep is the finest that I ever saw." 



Under such conditions, it is not at all difficult 

 to imagine that in 200 years of quiet and un- 

 interrupted breeding, carried on by the fittest 

 of such rams as these, the result might easily be 

 a new species closely paralleling Ovis karelini, 

 and larger every way than Ovis dalli. 



As conditions of slaughter are to-da}', the 

 locality which produced these sheep will be in- 

 vaded and shot to pieces by an eager army of 

 sheep-hunters, just as soon as its name is made 

 known ; and thus Nature's last attempt at 

 species-making in American sheep will come to 

 an untimely end. As this breed disappears, and, 

 at least while we are bidding it farewell, we will 

 call it the Wide-Horned White Sheep, locality 

 Yukon Territory. 



Duck Collection. — The collection of ducks now 

 installed on the Wild Fowl Pond is unusually 

 complete and will well repay inspection. There 

 are about SC>0 specimens of some twenty-three 

 species, including several of the diving ducks of 

 the genus Marila. All of the males are now in 

 full nuptial array and present a much more strik- 

 ing appearance than will be the case later in the 

 summer, when many take on the eclipse plumage. 



