143 



CHAPTER XXI. 



EUMINANl'S COnfinued sheep and goats antelopes — CAMELOPARDS. 



(Caprid.'E.) — Sheep and Goats. — It may be a question whether it woiikl not have been better to 

 have begun the Ruminants witli the Sheep and Goats, instead of the Oxen, so as to have 

 allowed the latter to come before the Bovine Antelopes, instead of being separated from them by the 

 Sheep and Goats, but this is a difficulty that cannot be overcome by any mode of arrangement, 

 for although we should not wish to separate them from the Bovine Antelopes, we should like as little 

 to have the Caprine animals, such as the Ibex and the Chamois, separated from the true Antelopes 

 by the interpolation of the Buffaloes. It will be sufficient always to bear in mind that the 

 different families of the Antelopes diverge at different points and in different directions, so as to 

 render a correct linear arrangement impossible. 



The Sheep and Goats may be well separated as genera, but it is impossible to break them into 

 two families. 



Sheep. — (Map 35.) There is some difficidty in arriving at the real number of species of Sheep. 

 Mr. Edward Blyth published, in 1841, a paper giving an account of the different species with 

 which he was acquainted. These amounted to fifteen. Dr. Giebel, on the other hand, in his 

 " Saugethiere," diminishes these perhaps unduly. He does not allow more than five, considering 

 the characters relied on by Mr. Blyth to be too insignificant to constitute species. It matters little 

 to us, however, which view be adopted, because Mr. Blyth's additional species, with one exception, 

 which he is doubtful about himself, all come from the same districts as the already recognised 

 species. 



According to Giebel, his five species are thus distributed : one (the Mouflon, or Mustmon) is 

 European, or rather Mediterranean, (being found in Corsica, Sardinia, Cj'prus, the Grecian Archi- 

 pelago, Macedonia, Servia, and the Persian Mountains. Another (0. TRAOELAPHrs), (almost gen- 

 erically distinct) to North Africa. Another (the Argali) belongs to Middle North Asia ; a fourth 

 (0. BuRRHEi.) to the Himmalayahs ; a fifth (the Big-horn, or O. Montana) to the Rocky Mountain 

 range. Mr. Blyth's additional supposed species come from Bokhara, Thibet, Caucasus, Armenia, 

 Cyprus, &c. 



The greatest interest attaches to the distribution of the North American and the Asiatic 

 species. We have seen that the rimiinants are most sparingly represented in North America. Eight 

 deers, two antelopes, one sheej), and two oxen, are all that are now found in that country. 

 Whether an}^ of these are also found in the Old World is a point in dispute. In Map 35 1 liave 

 shown what I consider the distribution of the European Mouflon, the Asiatic Argali and the 

 American Bi^-horn ; but there is a mountain sheep found in Kamschatka (0. mvicola of 



