144 MAMMALS. 



Eschscholtz), which from Eschscholtz's description would appear to be a variety of the Argali. 

 Cuvior conjectured that the North American species might be an Argali which had wandered over 

 the ice to North America. I shall consider the probability of this migration by and bye, when we 

 come to still closer affinities, as in the Spermophilcs. Dr. Giebel remarks that they certainly come 

 very close to each other. " Two other species of Sheep," says he, " have lately been distinguished : 

 O. Californica Douglas and 0. nivicola Esch. The latter certainly, through its abode in 

 Kamschatka, would appear to mix the Siberian with the American species. The distinction of both 

 lies in the peculiar smallness of the horns, the colour, and the larger proportions."* 



I think Dr. Spencer Baird has arrived at a juster conclusion. After pointing out the differences 

 between them which he regards as specific, and which are chiefly differences in the spiral of the 

 horns, and their greater divergence at the tip — thirty-six inches in the Argali and only eighteen 

 in the Big-horn — he continues, "While considering the Big-liorn as distinct from the Argali, I am 

 far from considering it the same with the Kamschatkan Ovis nivicola of Eschscholtz, as asserted by 

 most authors. It is with the Argali that the latter is to be compared, both having the same 

 peculiarity of an excessive twist outwards and upwards of the ends of the horns, which also 

 curve over a greater number of degrees. Judging from the figures of Eschscholtz, the tips of the 

 horns must be at least three feet apart, instead of the twenty inches of our species. All these 

 peculiarities are those of the Argali ; and without pretending to decide whether the Kamschatkan 

 or Siberian species are the same, I will only state that they are so considered by Pallas, who gives 

 the measurement, description, and figure of a yoimg ram from Kamschatka in the work noted below.f 

 The same remarks will applj' in great measure to the supposed horn of 0. Montana, figured and 

 described by Middendorf, from the Sea of Okotsk. I am far from admitting that any of our North 

 American Mammals occur in Eastern Asia, unless it be the Spermophilus Parryi, although some 

 authors have attempted to prove an identity for the beaver, the brown bear, the sable, the large 

 marmot, as well as the large sheep." * 



On the whole, my inclination would be to go along with Dr. Baird in his latter proposition, 

 as well as the former, were its terms a little less sweeping. He has forgotten the white bear, 

 the walrus, the seals, the lemming — not to speak of the more doubtful cases of the lynx, moose, 

 glutton, &c. 



Schrenck agrees with Middendorf in looking upon the Argali or its northern form (0. nivicola 

 Ench.) as the same as Oxi& Montana, for he regards the Mountain Sheep of Amourland as that species. § 

 On this point a well-informed writer in the " Natural History Review " makes the following remarks : 

 " We are very much disposed to question the fact of this Ovis being identical with the Ovis monfana 

 of North America. It is Oris nivicola of Eschscholtz. Middendorf gives the Spruce partridge of 

 Canada {Tctrao Canadensis) as occurring in Northern Asia; but his examples, on further investigation, 

 were proved to belong to quite a different species {Tetrao falcipennis) . The forms of the higher 

 northern latitudes of the eastern and western hemispheres, though very similar, are, excejit in the 

 Polar regions, usuallj- specifically distinct." || It will go near to be thought so shortly. 



The range of the Big-horn extends from the region of the Upj)er Missouri and Yellow Stone to 



* Giebel, " Saugethiere," i. 282 (Note), 1809. Railroad E.'cplorations and Surveys," vol. viii. p. 078. 1857. 

 t Pallas, " NaturgosohicMo mcrkwurdiger Thicic," § Schrenck (Dr. Von Leopold) " Reiseu undForscliuu- 



Saniml. xi. 1779, p. 1. Tab. i. ii. gen im Araurland." Baud I. 1858. 



X Baird, " Eepoit on Zoology in United States, Pacific || " Natural History Review'' (Jan. 1861), I. p. 1. 



