KAMSCHATKA WILD SHEEP. 207 



KAMSCHATKA WILD SHEEP or WILD SHEEP OF ALASKA 



(Ovis nivicola). 



[Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., and Mr. B. Brooke, P.Z.S. 1875, P- S-^-l 



Adult male (winter), Mus. Liigd., Kamschatka. 



Hair very long and woolly, and not lengthened into a mane on the 

 neck ; general colour grizzly brown ; an indefinitely bounded patch 

 on the face below the eyes, and all four limbs anteriorly rich uniform 

 dark brown ; space round the muzzle, upper and under lip, rump, and 

 posterior part of the haunches, centre of the belly, and the limbs 

 posteriorly pure white. The white on the posterior parts of the limbs 

 give place very suddenly to the brown of their anterior surfaces. The 

 white of the rump does not surround the tail, which on its upper 

 surface is darker than the back. Ears and tail very short. 



Horns in form closely resembling those of Ovis montana. Frontal 

 and nuchal surfaces convex ; orbital surface flat ; fronto-nuchal and 

 edges very greatly rounded ; fronto-orbital edge strongly defined, a 

 deep groove lying between it and the orbital surface ; the terminal 

 curve of the horns well developed, and directed upwards and outwards. 



Skull remarkably short and broad, and strongly anchylosed ; a 

 shallow anteorbital fossa. Length from between horns to end of 

 prsemaxillae 10 inches, its greatest width across the orbits 6f inches ; 

 height at the shoulder, 37 inches ; length of horns round curve, 

 33 inches, their circumference I2f inches. 



Adult male, Mus. Strassburg. Only differs from the former in 

 being considerably paler in colour. Length of horns 27 inches, their 

 circumference i^j inches. 



Adult female, Mus. Lugd. Is darker than the male, and has short 

 compressed horns, about g inches in length. The distribution of 

 colour is the same as in the male. 



Range. — Kamschatka (Eschscholtz) ; Stanovoi Mountains, as far 

 south as the sources of the Utschur (Middendorff). 



Habitat — Kamschatka. 



