8o6 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



the same tuft between the small hairy ears. The ears of the Kamchatkan sheep 

 are, however, rounded instead of blunt; and the white patch on the rump is smaller, 

 and does not extend above the tail, while there is no trace of a dark stripe down 

 the back. 



The Kamchatkan sheep is found in the Stanovoi mountains to the 

 north of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as in the Peninsula of Kam- 

 chatka, and since it may also extend somewhat to the eastward, it is obvious that 

 its range is separated by little more than Behring Strait from its American cousin in 

 Alaska. Hence, it is evident that such difference as there is between the two is 

 merely due to their isolation from one another since the period when there was a 

 free communication between Northeastern Asia and Alaska. Dr. Guillemard found 

 these sheep abundant on the eastern coast of Kamchatka, about fifty miles to the 

 northeast of Petropaulovski; his party having shot fourteen adult rams in two 

 days. He describes them as standing about three feet four inches at the shoulders 

 on the average; and the largest horns he obtained measured thirty-eight inches 

 along the curve, with a basal girth of fourteen inches. "The general color," 

 writes Dr. Guillemard, " is a brown gray, the head and neck rather grayer than the 

 rest of the body. Both tail and ears are remarkably short. The coat in those that 

 we shot was very long and thick, almost like that of a reindeer; but autumn was 

 well advanced, and I have no doubt that in summer it is much thinner. It was 

 curious that we should not only never have shot, but never even have seen, the 

 females. All those that fell to our rifles were rams of (as far as we could judge) 

 from three to six years old. Whether the females always herd together or only at 

 certain seasons it is difficult to say, and we were unable to get any information from 

 the natives upon this point. The taste of the meat when quite fresh was slightly 

 rank, but upon the second day the unpleasant flavor had entirely disappeared." 



THE MONGOLIAN AND TIBETAN ARGALIS (Ovzs ammon and O. hodgsoni) 



The magnificent wild sheep of Mongolia known as the argali (O. ammon*), and 

 a very closely-allied species (O. hodgsoni) found in Tibet, are readily distinguished 

 from the American and Kamchatkan members of the genus by the characteristics of 

 their skull and horns. The skull has a much deeper pit for the gland below the eye; 

 and the enormous horns have the wrinkles on the anterior surface very strongly 

 marked, and their outer anterior angle much less prominent, the inner one being 

 more distinct. 



The two species, or perhaps varieties, are so closely related that one description 

 will do for both; but the true argali appears to be distinguished by the absence of a 

 ruff on the throat, while in one specimen in the British Museum there is no distinct 

 light-colored patch on the rump. The argalis may be compared in size to a large 

 donkey; and have short, coarse, and close hair, small ears, and a very short tail. In 

 the males of the Tibetan species the hair on the sides and under part of the throat 

 is lengthened so far as to form a white ruff, and there is also a shorter crest of dark 

 hair running along the back of the neck to the shoulders. The color is grayish 



