124 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



so little lighter in colour than the back as to be almost unnoticeable. 

 Females in the winter coat show a tuh of dark hair longer than elsewhere 

 on the nape ot the neck. 



Very different in appearance to the old rams in the summer coat as 

 described above was the young ram in the Zoological Gardens already 

 mentioned. According to a figure published by Mr. P. L. Sclater in the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1899,^ this animal, at a time when 

 its horns were still small, upright, and goat-like, was of a generally 

 brownish grey colour, the face, chest, and a line on the flanks being much 

 darker, while the inner surface of the ears, muzzle, the under surface of 

 the body, and the rump-patch and tail, as well as the hinder surface of the 

 fore-legs, were pure white. The whole ot the fore-legs with the exception 

 of the front surface, as well as the inner side and the outer surface of the 

 lower part of the hind-limbs, were likewise very much lighter than the 

 back and sides of the body. There was a whitish gorget on the throat. 

 Starting from this very dark juvenile stage, the coat of the males in 

 summer appears to become gradually lighter and lighter, till in very old 

 rams it reaches the extreme lightness referred to above. 



A remarkable feature about the young ram just mentioned was the 

 extreme rapidity of its growth. In the summer of 1899 ^^ ^^^^ '" ^^ 

 condition shown in Mr. Sclater's figure, but by September 1900 its horns 

 were quite large and had assumed the form characteristic of adult rams, 

 while the hair on the throat had developed into a fliirly conspicuous ruff 

 (Fig. 26). 



In Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All hands the maximum length of 

 Ovis amnion horns, measured along the front curve, was given at 56^ inches ; 

 this dimension being taken from a pair obtained by Major C. S. Cumberland 

 in the Altai, which then formed the " record " in this country. This and 

 the other dimensions have, however, been largely exceeded in the case of 



1 Plate vii. 



