114 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the fore feet ; it has the muzzle naked, and no beard, 

 though it agrees with the aoudad in lacking the gland 

 below the eye, which is found in all typical sheep. 



The aoudad inhabits the lofty mountains of the 

 Atlas, Aures, and other ranges, being distributed 

 throughout Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. 

 Never found far from the desert, its haunts (as the 

 writer can testify) are rugged and desolate in the 

 extreme. Bare cliffs, brilliantly coloured in red and 

 yellow, and scantily bedecked with dwarf bushes, 

 constitute the home of the Barbary sheep ; its best 

 known haunt is the district of El Kantara, on 

 the very edge of the great African desert. Here 

 yawning precipices and waterless ravines intersect 

 the limestone cliffs, giving shade and asylum to the 

 game ; ragged clumps of thuja scrub and patches of 

 alfa grass constitute almost the only vegetation. 

 The rufous coat of the sheep well matches the red 

 and yellow tints of the rocks, so that it is very 

 difficult to make them out ; one recalls similar 

 instances of desert animals coloured to match 

 their surroundings, jerboas and gerbilles amongst 

 mammals, and coursers amongst birds, being cases 

 in point. 



The Barbary sheep appears to have been first 

 mentioned by Herodotus, the Romans having 

 established on the site of El Kantara their southern 

 outpost of Calceus Herculis. 1 Herodotus also 



1. The " asses with horns" in Libya were probably aoudad. 



