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Sheep 



THE GOATS AND SHEEP 



Syrian. 



Himalayan 

 Goats. 



Sheep. 



Origin of 

 Domestic Sheep. 



Great Sheep of 

 Tibet. 



Bharal. 



Great Sheep of 

 Pamirs. 



Ural. 



Hybrids. 



are often large but only exceptionally spiral. These are the hair-yielding species- 

 of India. 



7. Syrian Goat. Hybrids of this breed, commonly designated " Aden goats," 

 are well known in India, whither they are imported by the Arab traders and 

 passed off under the names Angora or Kashmir. They have long, flapping, 

 pendent ears and slender limbs. Their horns are usually erect and spiral. 



8. Himalayan Goats. Hodgson's paper (Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1847, xvi., 

 pt. 2, 1003-12), as already stated, practically gives all information regarding 

 those known to exist. He refers them to the following special breeds : 



(a) Chdngrd the common domestic goat of Tibet, which hardly deviates 

 from the wild goat (c. fegngms) except in the large and pendent ears. 

 Button, on the other hand, holds that so far as the Persian and Afghan goats 

 are concerned, they could not be regarded as derived from the wild goat just 

 named. 



(6) Chdpu or Chydpu the goat of the Sub-Himalaya (especially the Cis- 

 Himalaya). It is much smaller than the chdngrd and has long hair and fine 

 sub-fleece. 



(c) Sinai or Singdl an inhabitant of the more northern parts of the Sub- 

 Himalaya from Kumaon to Nepal, where it is probably indigenous. The surcoat 

 and fine sub-fleece, though inferior to those of the chdngrd and chydpu, are yet 

 capable of being applied to the manufacture of ropes, blankets, serges, etc. It is 

 less patient of change than the chdngrd or chydpu, but the mutton is good, 

 especially that of the kids. 



(d) Dugu a goat of the Central Sub-Himalaya and lower warmer tracts. It 

 is characterised by the absence of the long hair and the nearly as frequent absence 

 of the interdigital pits of the other breeds. The male is much larger than the 

 female, and often almost shaggy. There is no sub-fleece, the hair is coarse and 

 next to useless. [Cf. Barnes and Lyall, Settl. Rept. Kangra, 1889, 38-43 ; Diak, 

 Settl. Rept. Kangra, 1898, 36-68; Drew, Jummoo and Kashmir, 1875, 288; 

 Lawrence, Valley of Kashmir, 1895, 360-4.] 



THE WILD SHEEP. It has, however, been known from the most 

 ancient times that wild sheep and goats exist in India. JElian (compiling 

 from Megasthenes, 300 B.C.) speaks of the wild sheep and goats on the 

 mountains of India. If considerable uncertainty exists as to the origin of 

 the Indian goats, a far greater obscurity enshrouds the sheep. The struc- 

 tural difference between the members of the genus CAPRA the goats 

 and that of Ovis the sheep is very small indeed, and one species 

 Ovis nahura is practically intermediate. The origin of the Indiaa 

 tame sheep is unknown. Continuing the example above, the following 

 are the wild species : 



Ovis hodgsoni, Biyth (0. Ammon, Hors.) ; Blanford, Fa. Br. Ind. (Mam- 

 malia), 494-5 ; the Great Sheep of Tibet, the nyan, nyand, hyan, niar, etc. This 

 magnificant sheep, probably the largest of the genus, does not usually occur on 

 the Indian side of the Himalaya. It is the shyest and wildest of all animals, and 

 is very hard to kill. It has never been domesticated, but wild hybrids between, 

 it and o. vignei have been shot. 



0. nahura, Gray / Blanford, I.e. 499-501 ; the Bharal or Blue Wild Sheep, 

 the bharal, bharut, na, wa, nervati, nao, etc. This sheep is met with in the alpine 

 tracts (between the limits of forest and snow) from Bhutan to Ladakh and Western 

 Tibet. 



0. poll, Blyth ; 'Blanford, I.e. 496-7; the Great Sheep of the Pamirs : Marco 

 Polo's sheep : is the kuchkdr, ras, rush, kulja, arkar, etc. This remarkable sheep 

 only comes within the Indian area at Hunza, north of Gilgit. \_d. Marco Polo, 

 Travels (Yule, transl.), i., 163-9.] 



0. vignei, B/yth. ; Blanford, I.e. 497-9: the Ural or Sha the Bearded 

 Sheep, known to the Natives as the kuch, koch, guch, gad, mish, sha, ural, uriar, 

 etc. It is the wild sheep of the Salt Range in the Panjab and of the Suliman 

 Range of Hazara and Afghanistan, etc. The varieties most generally recog- 

 nised are the ural, which occurs between 800 and 5,000 feet, and that called the 

 sha at much higher altitudes 10,000 to 14,000 feet. 



It has been bred freely with tame sheep, and wild hybrids (as already noted), 

 between it and o. hoagsoni have been shot. If, therefore, any of the preceding. 



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