562 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Satunin writes later (1904) that it is sedentary on Ararat and in 

 the southern part of the Nakhitchevan district; but from Ararat 

 to Sarikamish it appears only in winter; it is especially numerous 

 on the Zor Heights (south of Igdyr) about 40 km. west of Ararat 

 (Nasonov, 1923, p. 26) . 



Carruthers (1915, pp. 18, 20-21) gives the following account: 



The mouflon find suitable haunts amongst these high mountain masses 

 [south and southeast of Lake Van]. . . . 



They are much more numerous and easier to stalk than the ibex .... They 

 are not always easy to find. One traveller records them on a certain range 

 and the next visitor is disappointed at finding nothing there. It is certain 

 that they change their quarters and migrate at fixed seasons, one of the 

 most important influences in forcing their movements being the annual 

 migrations of the Kurd shepherds, for they come in thousands, with their 

 flocks and herds in tens of thousands, eating up the whole country as they 

 go by, and disturbing all the game. . . . 



Captain Dickson spoke of finding many wild sheep in the ranges to the 

 south-east of Van; other hunters have failed to find any game there at 

 all. . . . Mr Isidor Morse tells me that he actually killed ibex and sheep 

 on the same ground in the Ardost Dagh, at the south-east corner of Lake Van. 



W. G. Heptner writes (in litt., December, 1936) that this sub- 

 species exists [within the Soviet Republic] only in a very limited 

 region of the Armenian mountains, and that hunting is forbidden. 



Erzerum Sheep 



OVIS GMELINII GMELINII Blyth 



OCfis] Gmelinii Blyth, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1840, p. 69, 1841. (Blyth 

 states that the Zoological Society of London received the cotypes "from 

 Erzeroom," but this does not necessarily indicate the exact type locality. 

 Sushkin remarks (1925, p. 139) concerning Erzerum: "Reputed terra 

 typica; no wild sheep have been found by later explorers near Erzerum 

 and no specimens exactly similar to the type have been found elsewhere.") 



FIGS.: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 7, pi. 5, fig. 8, 1841; Lydekker, 1901, pi. 3, 

 fig. 5; Nasonov, 1911, p. 1276, fig. 1, and 1921, p. 1228, fig. 10. 



In view of what has been said concerning the uncertain type 

 locality, there is very little that can be added on the distribution 

 or status of this subspecies. 



"Size of an ordinary tame sheep, with a remarkably short coat, 

 of a lively chestnut-fulvous colour, deepest upon the back ; the limbs 

 and under parts whitish, with few traces of dark markings, except 

 a finely contrasting black line of more lengthened hair down the 

 front of the neck of the male only, widening to a large patch on the 

 breast; and in both sexes a strip of somewhat lengthened mixed 

 black and white hairs above the mid. joint of the fore-limbs an- 

 teriorly . . . ; tail small, and very slender; horns of the male sub- 

 trigonal, compressed, and very deep, with strongly marked angles 



