OVIS- DALLI, -NELSON. 
WHITE SHEEP: DALL’S MOUNTAIN SHEEP: 
Type Specimens in the United States National Museum. Described by 
E. WW. Nelson, in the Proceedings of the National Museum, VII., 1884, 
page 12, as Ovis montana dalli, 
une Le eae ee Hills, Alaska, 100 miles southwest of Fort Yukon, 
Alaska. 
Color and Pelage.—In both sexes the pelage of Ovis dalli, when clean, is 
everywhere milk-white, both in winter and in summer, and from birth 
to old age. 
Through a strange combination of circumstances the type speci- 
mens collected in the Tanana Hills, far in the interior of Alaska, 
were of such a peculiar appearance that Mr. Nelson could not 
possibly do otherwise than describe them as being “ nearly uni- 
form dirty-white. The dinginess of the white over the entire 
body and limbs appears to be almost entirely due to the ends of 
the hair being commonly tipped with a dull rusty speck. On close 
examination this tipping of the hair makes the fur look as though 
it had been slightly singed.” * 
In his report on his “ Natural History Collections in Alaska” 
(p. 284), Mr. Nelson makes the following record: “ All of the 
skins of this animal seen by me among the Eskimo from the 
Kuskoquim River to the Arctic coast were of the uniform dingy 
whitish color characteristic of the race.” 
Unfortunately, the coat of Dall’s Sheep is sometimes influ- 
enced by its surroundings in a manner which tends to convey a 
very erroneous impression of its real character. During the 
spring and summer months the hair is frequently stained and 
discolored by contact with wet soil when the animal lies down. 
Each hair is a thin, white tube, filled solidly with a spongy, white 
pith, which readily takes up any liquid coloring matter by capillary 
attraction. When the end of a hair becomes filled with rusty- 
yellow clay water, or water discolored by dark gray earth, the 
coloring matter is held there for an indefinite period. This it is 
*Proceedings of the National Museum, 1884, p. 12. 
