THE ARMENIAN AND CYPRIAN SHEEP 813 



fawn on the upper parts in the summer dress, but in winter becomes grayish brown; 

 the under parts, together with the rump, tail, and legs, are whitish; while in old 

 rams the ruff is generally white in front, passing behind into black, although in some 

 cases it may be entirely black. There is a dark brown or black patch behind the 

 shoulder; and sometimes a blackish line dividing the white of the under parts from 

 the darker area, as well as blackish markings on the limbs. The ewes and young 

 rams are of a uniform grayish-brown color. 



The geographical range of the urial is more extensive than that of 

 any other Old- World sheep, and includes districts with exceedingly 

 different climatic conditions. The large variety known as the sha extends from 

 Northern Tibet through L,adakh and Zanskar, where it is generally found at eleva- 

 tions of from twelve thousand to fourteen thousand feet, through Astor and Gilgit 

 (where it is locally known as the uria) to Afghanistan. The true urial inhabits the 

 Salt range of the Punjab, the Suliman range, the Hazara hills, and the neighbor- 

 hood of Peshawur, whence it ranges all through Sind, Baluchistan, and Afghanistan 

 into Eastern Persia. The variety found in Baluchistan and Kelat is characterized 

 by the very open spiral formed by the horns, so that the tips diverge much more 

 than usual; this variety was at one time regarded as a distinct species under the 

 name of O. blanfordi. 



Regarding the different habitats of the urial, Mr. Blanford observes 

 that in I^adakh this sheep inhabits open valleys; in Astor and Gilgit it 

 keeps to grassy ground at moderate elevations below the forest; in the Salt range of 

 the Punjab, and in Sind, Baluchistan, and Persia, it is found on undulating or hilly 

 ground cut up by ravines, and is more often seen on stony and rocky hillsides than 

 among bushes and scrub. The herds vary usually from three or four to twenty 

 or thirty in number; the sexes are generally together, but the males often 

 keep apart in summer. These sheep are wary and active; although not such mas- 

 ters of the art of climbing among precipices as the goats, tahr, or bharal, they get 

 over steep places with wonderful ease. Their alarm cry is a shrill whistle, their us- 

 ual call a kind of bleat. In the Punjab the breeding season is in September, but it 

 must be considerably later in Astor, where the lambs are born early in June. There 

 are either one or two young at a birth; and the species will freely interbreed with 

 domestic sheep. The Punjab and Sind urial inhabits a hotter area than any other 

 species of wild sheep; and it is remarkable that a single species should have been 

 able to adapt itself to climates so different from one another as are those of the Pun- 

 jab and I^adakh. 



In the Salt range of the Punjab the urial may occasionally be seen grazing with 

 domestic sheep; but they are soon disturbed by the sight of a European. The 

 broken nature of the ground, with numerous sharp ridges, separated by deep and 

 narrow ravines, renders, however, urial stalking a comparatively easy sport. 



THE ARMENIAN AND CYPRIAN SHEEP ( Ovis gmelini and O. ophion) 



The Armenian sheep brings us to the first of a group of three comparatively 

 small species distinguished from the urial by the total absence of horns in the ewes, 



