Cyprian Muflon 137 



Asia Minor. In Armenia, or Transcaucasia, according to Dr. K. Satunin, 

 the favourite haunts ot this sheep are in the neighbourhood of Kars and 

 Eriwan, although it also ranges some distance to the northward of these 

 localities. 



Accounts of the habits of this sheep in the wild state are unfortunately 

 few and imperfect. One of the best is given by Messrs. Danford and 

 Alston in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lontloii for 1880 (p. 55), 

 where the animal is alluded to under the name of Ovis ginelini^ but as 

 a portion of this is quoted in JVilil Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of All Lands, 

 repetition here would be superfluous. 



THE CYPRIAN MUFLON 



{Ovis orientalis ophion) 



Although regarded by its describer Blyth as a distinct species, there 

 seems little doubt that the Cyprian muflon is best viewed in the light of 

 a local race of the Asiatic species dwarfed by the comparatively small area 

 of its island habitat. It is true that some naturalists insist that distinguish- 

 able insulated forms of animals should always be regarded as species rather 

 than sub-species or races ; and that such minor rank is to be reserved for 

 cases where there is a complete gradation from one form to another. But 

 this is not the view taken here ; and indeed if it were rigidly acted upon 

 it would entail the necessity of regarding the small and stunted representa- 

 tives of the red deer inhabiting the island of Corsica as specifically distinct 

 from their larger brethren of the mainland of Europe. 



The Troodos mountains of Cyprus, whose central peak rises to a height 

 of between 6000 and 7000 feet above sea-level, are the home of this, the 

 smallest representative of the wild sheep. And it is to General Sir Robert 

 Biddulph, some time High Commissioner of the island, that the British 



