NOTES ON THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP OF NORTH 
AMERICA, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A 
NEW: SPECIES 
By WILLIAM T. HORNADAY. 
To many American sportsmen and naturalists there is no other 
wild animal on this continent which challenges admiration equal 
to that bestowed upon the Mountain Sheep. Unfortunately, it is 
only those who have made the acquaintance of this animal in life, 
and upon its own ground, who have a fair conception of its char- 
acter. Neither from the best mounted museum specimens, nor 
from the best living examples that have been shown in zoological 
gardens, can the observer learn the true character of this hardy 
mountaineer, in whose anatomy strength is combined with agility 
to an extent which is nothing short of marvellous. Its home is the 
loftiest rim-rock of the high mountain plateaus, or the most 
rugged and forbidding bad-lands of the middle altitudes. In 
summer its favorite pastures are the treeless slopes above timber- 
line, and in winter it paws through the snows of the mountain 
meadows to reach the tallest spears of grass. When the raging 
storms and deep snows of winter drive the elk and deer down into 
the valleys for food and shelter, the Mountain Sheep makes no 
perceptible change of locality. All the year round this animal is 
both well fed and well clad, and its savory flesh invites constant 
pursuit and attack from the mountain lion, and hunters both white 
and red. Unlike its dull-witted neighbor, the mountain goat, the 
Mountain Sheep is wide-eyed and wary, and difficult to approach. 
The best-known species of Mountain Sheep of North America 
is the familiar Big-Horn of the Rocky Mountains (Ovis mon- 
tana), which has been known for more than a century. 
In 1884 the pure white Mountain Sheep of Alaska and north- 
* The description of Fanxnin’s Mountain Sheep, reprinted herewith, was read 
before the New York Zoological Society at its annual meeting on January 8, Igor, 
and published on that date as an appendix to the Society’s Fifth Annual Report. 
The preparation of the accompanying Notes has been prompted by the fact that the 
literature of the subject was so meagre and so widely scattered that to the average 
student a comprehensive view of this very interesting group of animals was unob- 
tainable, except by great effort. Another reason for this publication is the hope 
that it may stimulate, and also promote, more precise and general inquiry into the 
life histories and distribution of the six species of American mountain sheep. 
In order to bring the subject more sharply before the student, no attempt has 
been made to trace the early history of the Big Horn, and the distribution of the 
various species is given only as it is believed to be to-day. 
