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XI. 



ON OV/S LKRVIA PALLAS AND ITS SUBSPECIES. 



By the Hon. W. KOTHSCHILD, F.R.S., Ph.D. 



(See anted, p. 3G.)| 



When I first examined (lie c? Barbary Sheep obtained by Mr. Hartert in the 

 Oned Mya on May 2, 1912, I was only able to compare it with a specimen 

 that died at Tring. I was even then ranch struck by the pale sandy colour 

 and absence of the median face-line ; but on comparing it at the British Mnseum 

 with an Aures Monntain ram, presented by Sir Edmond Loder, I was very doubtful, 

 and waited to see more specimens. Meanwhile I had a fine cJ specimen, obtained 

 in the Aures Mountains, mounted in exactly the same position as the Oued Mya (S. 

 On comparing them a vast diftereuce was at once apparent : while in the Oned Mya 

 one the colour was pale sandy rufous, without a trace of a dark face-stripe, with 

 a white patch below and somewhat behind the ears, and the horns were bent down 

 and backward, hardly rising at all above the skull, in the Aures specimen the colour 

 is deep rufous grey with a distinct face-.stripe, and the horns rise considerably 

 above the head before curving backwards, and the downward curve is slighter. 

 I saw at once that 1 must inspect more specimens. I ascertained that there were 

 a number of Egyptian specimens in tlie possession of two sportsmen and in Messrs. 

 Howhmd Ward's hands. 1 first of ail (^vauiined a ? head from the mountains east 

 of the Nile which Messrs. Uowhind Wiird were mounting, and then the fine 

 cJ belonging to Mr. Gilbert Blaine from between the Dongola Province and 

 Kordofan. I then inspected Mr. G. C. Whitaker's fine d from the Red Sea Province, 

 and lastly some dried skins of sj)ecimens from tlie Dongola region. 



The Dongola- Kordofan race is again very distinct ; having low bent horns like 

 the Oned Mya form, but the colour is brownish grey on the neck and body, while 

 the head and .face is darker grey owing to an admixture of black hair ; the beard is 

 so strongly mixed with dark hairs tliat it aj)pears almost black. 



The Red Sea form is similar in most res[iects to the Oned Mya form, but 

 is deeper rufous in colour and lacks the sub-auricular light patches. 



It now remains to consider the nomenclature of these four forms, and we are 

 faced with a difticnlty in the case of I'allas's lervia, for it was not always known 

 where his specimens came from ; but there can be no such doulit in regard to 

 lrfif/i'/i/j//tuii ( 'nvier, which came I'rom Mauretania, and ornatus T. Geott'roy, the tyjie 

 of which was shot " outside the gates of Cairo." However," as Pallas founded his 

 krria on Shaw's Fishtail or Lerwec, and this was procured in Algeria, it is (|uite 

 clear that both lervia and trai/clcplius refer to the North Mauretanian race. The 

 Ited Sea race is undoubtedly the one which in Geoft'roy's days reached to Cairo, and 

 therefore must stand as oniutux, while the Central Saharan and Dongola-Kordofan 

 races must get names. I describe them as follows : 



Ovis lervia sahariensis snbsp. nov. 

 S ad. Horns strongly dejiressed, turning sharply down before bending back- 

 wards. Uniform pale rufous sand-colour all over; a whitish patch below and 

 somewhat behind the ear, no trace of a median facial slrijie. 



