Urial 131 



THE URIAL, OR PUNJAB WILD SHEEP 



{Ov/'s vignci cycloceros) 



The widely-spread Ovh vignei is another of the species of wild sheep 

 found in the area covered by the present work which has been fully 

 treated of in the Gi-eat and Small Game of India, etc. It was there shown 

 that the Kelat representative of this sheep, described by Mr. A. O. Hume 

 as Ovn blanfordi, appears to be inseparable from the true urial of the 

 Punjab and Afghanistan, and since there is an objection to the use of the 

 term cycloceros tor the latter, the name blanfordi would naturally seem to be 

 the one available. 



" But, unfortunately, the name Ovis arkal was applied at a much 

 earlier date than Mr. Hume's description of the Kelat animal to a wild 

 sheep from the Kopet-Dagh range, which forms the boundary between 

 Turkestan and North Persia, to the eastward of the Caspian. And this 

 0. arkal appears inseparable from cycloceros. If this view be correct, the 

 name arkal has the right of priority for the Punjab wild sheep. In the 

 absence, however, of skins for comparison, it is almost impossible to be 

 sure that O. arkal may not indicate yet another local race of the present 

 species. Monsieur Dauvergne has, indeed, suggested that 0. arkal may be 

 the same as 0. blanfordi, which he keeps apart from O. cycloceros.''' 



In this unsatisfactory state the matter must remain for the present. 

 Whatever be its correct title, a race of Ovis vignei occurs within the area 

 covered by the present volume in Southern Persia, Russian Turkestan, and 

 certain districts of the Caucasus. 



