814 



THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



the want of a distinct ruff on the chin of the rams, and the much finer wrinkles on 

 the front of their horns, as well as by the tail being always dark colored. The Ar- 

 menian sheep, which inhabits Eastern Persia and Asia Minor, and is especially com- 

 mon in the Cilician Taurus, is the largest of these three species, the rams generally 

 standing about two feet nine inches at the shoulder. The color of the upper parts 

 of the body in the rams is russet yellow, the fore portion of the head being whitish, 

 and the under parts, inside of the limbs, and the whole of the lower portions of the 

 legs, as well as a streak on the buttocks, white. There is a dark mark on the front 

 of the fore-legs above the knee, and the fringe of long hair on the lower part of the 

 throat is also dark, as is the end of the tail. The horns have a peculiar backward 

 and inward curvature, so as nearly to meet behind the neck, and as a rule they do 

 not exceed twenty-six inches in length, but a single pair has been recorded as meas- 

 uring upward of forty inches. The females have a characteristic white saddle mark 

 on the back. 



In the Troodos mountains of Cyprus this species is represented by the smaller 

 but closely-allied Cyprian sheep, which may indeed be nothing more than a 

 geographical race of the other, diminished in size and modified by the small 



area of its habitat and its 

 long isolation. This elegant 

 species is, indeed, the smallest 

 of all the wild sheep, the rams 

 standing only just over twenty- 

 six inches at the shoulder, and 

 their horns not exceeding 

 twenty-three inches in length. 

 According to Colonel J. Bid- 

 dulph, it is distinguished from 

 the typical form of the Arme- 

 nian sheep by the horns being 

 more slender, with their outer 

 front angle almost completely 

 obliterated, and their tips 

 directed upward instead of 

 downward. The fringe on the 

 throat is also less developed 



and there is a much more distinct dark line dividing the white of the belly from the 

 rufous of the flanks. There is, however, a variety of the Armenian sheep in which 

 the horns approximate in form to those of this species. 



HEAD OF CYPRIAN SHEEP. 

 (From Biddulph, Ptoc. Zool. Soc., i 



THE MOUFLON (Ovis musimon] 



The European mouflon, now confined to the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, is 

 the last member of the typical group of wild sheep. In height the rams stand 

 about twenty-seven and one-half inches at the withers ; the build of the animal 



