ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 557 



time making its too close proximity to human settlement un- 

 desirable. 



Buffaloes are subject to epizootic attacks of the rinderpest, intro- 

 duced into South Africa 50 years or more ago. During a severe 

 outbreak about 1896, it wiped out all the herds south of the Oka- 

 vango in South-West Africa and these have never since reestab- 

 lished themselves. According to Sir F. J. Jackson, after an out- 

 break in 1890, buffaloes almost disappeared in East Africa and 

 became one of the rarest animals in the country. After about twenty 

 years, however, they gradually built up their numbers and are again 

 locally common. As an example of this, A. B. Percival states that 

 in the case of the El Donyo Sabuk herd, which in 1901 was reduced 

 to less than 40 head, he counted in 1917 nearly 400, in spite of 

 shooting; again in the Kapiti swamps of East Africa, where in 

 1901 he found only some 30 animals, the number had increased by 

 1917 to at least 200. In Uganda, in spite of the widespread ravages 

 of the rinderpest in recent years, the species not only continues to 

 hold its own, but is actually increasing. 



G. M. A. 



Wild Sheep of the Old World 



The Wild Sheep of the entire world are a distinctly menaced and 

 gradually vanishing group. The areas they occupy are for the 

 most part beyond or above the limits of agriculture, although there 

 is some contact or conflict with grazing domestic flocks. The menace 

 comes from excessive hunting, on the part of both primitive peoples 

 and those of more advanced culture. Great increase in the use 

 and precision of firearms during recent decades has contributed 

 largely to the present state of affairs. 



While probably not more than one or two forms of Old World 

 Wild Sheep have disappeared completely, and while some stocks 

 in the most remote and inaccessible regions may have held their own 

 fairly well up to the present, the next few decades are likely to be 

 critical for a considerable proportion of the Old World forms. It is 

 therefore important to make an inventory of the entire group, as a 

 basis for future conservation measures. For this reason all known 

 forms will be included in the following account, although those 

 that seem fairly safe for the present will be accorded rather brief 

 treatment. 



Sushkin's paper (1925) furnishes the main basis for the classifica- 

 tion employed. It does not appear logical, however, that certain 

 subspecies of Ovis ammon should be widely separated from certain 

 other subspecies, while the intervening territory is occupied by va- 

 rious forms of Ovis polii. I have therefore reverted to Lydekker's 

 point of view, in treating all these as subspecies of Ovis ammon. 



