ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 561 



the most part, to the rolling foothills and the outlying spurs of the Cilician 

 Taurus. They inhabit quite isolated ridges, lying far out in the plains, as 

 well as the flanks of the main Taurus. In these localities a wide expanse of 

 featureless country forms their retreat and saves them from extinction, in- 

 stead of rugged ranges of high altitude. The mouflon apparently never go 

 very high, even on the spurs of the Taurus. . . . The northern range of 

 the mouflon on the central plateau of Asia Minor is probably somewhere 

 about Akserai, to the east of Tuz Kul. . . . 



The mouflon turns up again on the eastern side of the Anti Taurus in the 

 same form, ranging, in isolated habitats, as far north as Erzerum and as far 

 south as the Karaja Dagh between Urfa and Mardin. . . . 



Mouflon are said to exist in this area [Aintab, Marash, Albistan, and 

 Malatia], but I cannot find definite information as to the exact localities. 



Armenian Red Sheep 



OVIS OPHION ARMBNIANA NaSOnOV 



O[vis] ophion armeniana Nasonov, Bull. Acad. Sci. Russie, ser. 6, vol. 13, pt. 

 2, p. 1231, (1919) 1921. (Mountains near the town of Bayazid, sanjak of 

 Bayazid [west of Mount Ararat], Turkey (Nasonov, 1923, p. 25).) 



FIGS.: Nasonov, 1921, figs. 11, 12 (facing p. 1230), p. 1240, fig. 13, and 1923, 

 pi. 1 and figs. 2, 3. 



In the early part of the present century this sheep appeared to 

 exist in moderate numbers, but it has probably suffered depletion 

 in the meantime. 



General color varying from reddish yellow to brownish red ; throat 

 ruff long in winter, but shorter and less developed in summer; 

 saddle patches lacking in summer pelage but sometimes very dis- 

 tinct in winter; fronto-orbital edge of the horns weakly developed. 

 The females seldom have horns; they never hav.e throat ruff or 

 saddle patches. (Nasonov, 1923, pp. 27-28.) 



The range extends north to Alaghez; east to the mountains of 

 the Nakhitchevan district on the left bank of the Araxes; south to 

 the vicinity of Ordubad, the Negram Mountains, and the vicinity of 

 Khoi (north of Lake Urmi) ; west to the district of Bayazid and to 

 the Pir-Reshid mountains 60-80 km. east of Lake Van (Nasonov, 

 1923, pp. 25-26). These localities are in Armenia, northwestern 

 Persia, and extreme eastern Turkey. Sushkin (1925, p. 148) sum- 

 marizes the range as "Alaghez; Djulfa; Ararat; Bayazid." 



According to Radde (in Satunin and Radde, 1899, p. Ill), this 

 sheep lives in summer on the lower course of the western [ = east- 

 ern?] Arpatchai. In severe winters it moves in considerable num- 

 bers down into the Araxes Valley; it is then very cautious, and 

 wanders eastward from Erivan in the foothills between Nak- 

 hitchevan and Ordubad. 



Satunin (1896, p. 312) reports a Wild Sheep as pretty common 

 in the mountains of the Erivan and Kars districts ; it extends north- 

 ward about to the vicinity of Novo Bayazet, west of Sevan Lake. 

 19 



