1 8 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



a ferruginous cliiy as to turn the outer surface of the pehige, and in some 

 places the whole depth of it, the colour of iron rust. The under-surfaces 

 of the skin were more heavily stained, and the ahdomen showed large 

 patches of this dull reddish clay-colour. 



" I have examined perhaps forty skins and heads of this animal, and 

 excepting the type specimens, have never seen even one that was other- 

 wise than clear milk-white, save a few which had become stained or dirty 

 through contact with earth or dust. There is now before me a mounted 

 head, taken in siunmer, the hair on which is only an inch in length, but it 

 is perfectly white and immaculate." 



The following notes on this sheep are extracted from a paper published 

 by Mr. A. J. Stone in the Bulletin of the ylmcrican Mi/sciiin of Natural 

 History for 1901 ^ : — 



" From my experience with these animals I believe they seek quite as 

 rugged country in which to make their homes as does the Rocky Moun- 

 tain goat. They have higher latitudes, and live in regions in every way 

 more barren and forbidding. 



"Although they are very wary when hunted, they are rapidly 

 dwindling in numbers, for their white bodies in summer can be seen at 

 a great distance by the keen eye of the native, and very tew of our best 

 natural history collections will be enriched by their beautiful forms before 

 the last of them will have disappeared. 



" The females, with their lambs, generally keep to the high table- 

 lands, well back in the mountains, and are otten much more difficult to 

 locate than their mates. Broken jawbones, reunited, were so frequent 

 among the females killed as to excite comment." 



In his report on the mammals of the Yukon district, published in No. 

 19 of the North Amcrkaii Fauna, Mr. W. H. Osgood states that, although 

 the majority of specimens of the Alaskan bighorn in collections have been 



' \'ol. xiii. pp. 31 (•/ icg. 



