OVIS STONEI, ALLEN. 
STONE'S MOUNTAIN SHEEP: “BLACK SHEEP.” 
Type Specimens in the American Museum of Natural History, New York 
City. Collected by Andrew J. Stone, 1806. 
Type locality.—Northern British Columbia, Cheonnee Mountains, head- 
waters of the Stickine and Nass rivers. Lat. 57° to 58°. 
Description.—This animal is smaller and more lightly built than Ovis mon- 
tana. Its pelage is compact, and not so abundant as in Ovtis dalli and 
fannimt, and lightest in color when immature. After the third year it 
is readily distinguished by its dark colors, gray and dark brown, by a 
nearly black dorsal stripe extending from the back of the head to the 
tip of the tail, and the wide spread of its horns. 
Lamb.—Variable in color. Sometimes quite similar to the lamb of Ovts 
montana of the same age, and again much lighter. A lamb in the 
American Museum of Natural History, twenty-five inches high at the 
shoulders, is light gray. On the head, neck, and shoulders, to the 
region behind the elbow, the color is almost as light as the rump patch 
and inside of thighs. The breast and region of the shoulder joint and 
humerus are a shade darker, as also are the loins, iliac region, and 
thighs outside. The dorsal stripe is conspicuous and sharply defined. 
The horns are only one inch in length. 
A lamb of the same age in the Field Columbian Museum is every- 
where very much darker, save its rump patch, and, taken alone, might 
easily be mistaken for a young specimen of Ovis montana. 
Male and female, up to third year.—From the first year the color gradually 
grows stronger and darker until full maturity is reached. 
Male, fourth year.—Decidedly darker in all its dark colors, and the rump 
patch is lighter.* The head has remained unchanged, as to lightness 
of its color, from the first year. The body color of old males is Vandyke 
brown, with a slight mixture of gray hairs; but at a little distance the 
animal appears to be dark brown, or blackish brown. The body color 
is darkest low down on the sides, where it meets the white area of the 
abdomen, and is nearly black. 
The face is distinctly lighter in color than the body, the end of the 
muzzle being of a dirty, or dusky, white. The top of the muzzle is a 
warm, brownish gray, and the forehead is the same. Below the eyes 
is a large patch of a lighter color. Behind the horns, on the occiput, 
is a conspicuous dark patch from which an almost black band, 11% inches 
wide, extends back to the shoulders. Between this and the lower half 
of the neck the hair has, in some specimens, a rusty yellow wash, which 
* Between the type specimens in the American Museum at New York, and those 
composing the very fine group in the Field Columbian Museum at Chicago, there 
is a marked difference in intensity of color. The former are all much lighter than 
the very brown and sombre Chicago specimens. Mr. Stone is of the opinion that 
the New York specimens more nearly represent the average color of this species. 
The difference is no greater, however, than is sometimes observed in Ouvis montana, 
but the cause of it remains a mystery. 
