ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 565 



General color of upper parts in winter dark brownish yellow; 

 a dark band across the shoulder, with whitish patches before and 

 behind, forming a sort of double saddle-patch; a blackish flank- 

 band; belly white; crown, forehead, and muzzle blackish; a black 

 streak from eye to mouth, and below this a narrower gray one; 

 outer side of ears gray; tail whitish; front and outer side of fore- 

 legs above knees, and front of shank below white knees, blackish 

 tawny ; elsewhere lower part of forelegs and the whole of lower part 

 of hind legs white; a strong black throat-ruff, with some brownish 

 yellow hairs. In summer the general color changes to chestnut, 

 with almost complete obliteration of the saddle-patch. (Lydekker, 

 1913, vol. 1, pp. 83-84.) 



Sushkin (1925, p. 148) gives the range as "Laristan (southern 

 Persia) and (?) probably to Persian Baluchistan." 



The following remarks of St. John (in Blanford, 1876, p. 88) on 

 Persian sheep may refer in reality to the present species: "The 

 wild sheep of the south is found, so far as I have observed, at much 

 lower elevations than that of the north. In Fars I have noticed 

 that 0. cycloceros is generally found in the lower hills." 



Nasonov (1923, p. 39) writes that the exact place of occurrence 

 in Laristan is unknown. Some specimens taken by Zarudny in the 

 vicinity of Raskin, southeastern Persia, resemble the type. Thus 

 the range may extend through the mountains of southern Persia 

 from Laristan to Persian Baluchistan. 



Elburz Red Sheep 



Ovis ORIENTALIS S. G. Gmelin 



Ovis oriental-is S. G. Gmelin, Reise durch Russland, vol. 3, pp. 432, 486, 1774. 



(Bare mountains of Gilan and highest mountains of Mazanderan, Persia; 



type locality restricted by Nasonov (1923, p. 42) to the eastern part of the 



Elburz Mountains, Persia.) 



SYNONYM: Ovis gmelini erskinei Lydekker (1904). 

 FIGS.: Gmelin, 1774, vol. 3, pi. 55; Nasonov, 1910, pp. 700, 701, figs. 9, 10, 



and 1911, pp. 1288, 1289, figs. 6, 7, and fig. 8, facing p. 1290; Lydekker, 



1913a, pi. 19, fig. 1, and 1913c, vol. 1, p. 82, fig. 25; Nasonov, 1923, pi. 8, 



fig. 3, and p. 37, fig. 8. 



Although Nasonov (1923, p. 42) and Sushkin (1925, p. 148) 

 recognize both Ovis orientalis orientalis Gmelin and Ovis gmelinii 

 erskinei Lydekker, it must be noted that their type localities and 

 general ranges are practically identical, and that no very tangible 

 distinction can be found in the type descriptions. Accordingly 

 erskinei is here considered a synonym. It would be most unusual 

 for two species of the genus Ovis to occupy the same range. Possibly 

 Ovis gmelinii Blyth will prove to be a subspecies of orientalis. 



