FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 109 
Usually, Mountain Sheep lambs (of Ovis montana) are born 
between May 15th and June 15th, sometimes on the snow-fields, 
sometimes in rock-clefts, near the edge of timber. Like domestic 
sheep, one lamb at a birth is the usual number, but twins are 
also frequent. Against human foes the mother is timid and makes 
no stand, but it is fairly certain that she successfully defends her 
helpless offspring against the attacks of eagles, for otherwise no 
lambs would survive. In the Rocky Mountains—as we found 
to our loss—a dead sheep that lies unprotected for twenty-four 
hours is almost certain to be badly torn by an eagle during that 
time. 
Mountain Sheep in Captivity—Numerous attempts have been 
made to keep Mountain Sheep in captivity and to acclimatize 
them in the Eastern United States and in Europe. In the home 
country of the animal it has been kept in confinement with a 
very fair degree of success, and has even bred. So far as disposi- 
tion and temperament are concerned, it takes kindly to domestica- 
tion. When taken young and reared in captivity, the lambs be- 
come as gentle and affectionate as domestic sheep. Those which 
have been caught in an adult state, by hunters on snowshoes 
chasing them into deep snowdrifts, have accepted close confine- 
ment with a degree of resignation and philosophy rather unusual 
in caged wild animals. 
In 1893 Mr. W. B. Benham, of Bozeman, Mont., captured a 
fine three-year-old Big Horn ram, which he kept confined in a 
very small, tightly boarded pen near his store. For a week after 
capture the animal was wild and savage, and fought against cap- 
tivity, but he soon realized the futility of resistance and became 
tractable. Mr. Benham also owned another fine ram and two or 
three females. Of the ram, known as “ Billy,” an excellent photo- 
graph has been published in Forest and Stream (December 1, 
1894). This animal was caught literally “by hand,” by a hunter 
who ran it down on snowshoes in deep snow, seized it, threw it 
down, tied its legs together, and finally dragged it out of the 
mountains as it lay on a hide. 
Between fifteen and twenty head of Mountain Sheep have been 
taken to the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic coast for ex- 
hibition in zoological gardens, but none of them have lived longer 
than about one or two years, and none have bred. The combined 
drawbacks of a complete change in altitude, humidity of atmos- 
