100 On the Natural History of North America, 



sort is said to be as large as a calf of one or two years old ; 

 its head is much like that of a stag, and its horns like those 

 of a ram. Both its tail and hair are speckled, and shorter 

 than a stag's. Its hoof is large, round, and cleft like that 

 of an ox. The flesh of this animal is said to be very tender 

 and delicious. The second sort differs less from the sheep 

 of Europe. Some of them are white, and others black. 

 They are larger than the common sheep, have much more 

 wool, which is very good, and easy to be spun and wrought *. 

 In the History of California, by Venegas, there is a figure 

 of one of these animals, which the Monqui Indians, inha- 

 biting that country, call tayt\. Mr. Zimmermann seems 

 to entertain no doubt that the taye (or tage, as he calls it,) 

 is the same animal as the argali, or wild sheep, which in- 

 habits the north-east parts of Asia and the country of 

 Kamtschalka|. Mr. Pennant, though less positive, is of 

 the same o[)inion §. Ihis, however, appears to me to be a 

 doubtful point. Venegas's figure rather forbids the idea 

 that the Asiatic and American animal are the same. The 

 horns of the former arc less incurvated than those of the 

 latter. The abbe Clavigero says the taye is " unques- 

 tionably the ibex of Pliny, described by count de Buffon 

 under the name of bouq7tetiu\\." This cannot be; judging 

 by the figure of the Californian animal, it appears to be most 

 essentially different from the bouquetin, which is the copra 

 ibex of Linnaeus. 



I have lately received some additional information con- 

 cerning the existence of a large horned animal, probably 

 the taye, in the country adjacent to the river Missouri, the 

 great western branch of the Mississippi. This animal is a 

 native of the Stony mountains, about the head waters of the 

 Missouri. It is nearly of the size of an elk, and of the 

 colour of a fallow deer. Its horns resemble those of a ram, 

 but are turned, in a spiral form, like a trumpet, and are of 

 an enormous size, some of them measuring eight (French) 

 inches in diameter. The animal is said not to live longer 

 than ten or twelve years, because its horns, advancing for- 

 ward in proportion as the creature grows, finally pass the 

 mouth in such a manner as to prevent it from eating grass, 

 upon which alone it lives ; and thus it falls a victira^to its 

 hunger. The Indians of the country make of the horns 



• Philosophical 'I ransactlons abridged, Sec. vol. v. part 2. p. 194. 



f Notlcia de la California, &c. tomo primero, p. 43, -H, Madrid 1757. 



I Specimen Zoologise Geographies, &c. p. 632, 633. 



§ Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. IS, 14. 



!| The History of Mexico, &c. vol. it. p. 324. 



spoons 



