566 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



General color of head whitish; area in front of horns, and a 

 broad band from each eye to mouth, dark red; hairs on chin dark 

 gray and yellowish ; beard with numerous bristly hairs, whitish and 

 black; area beneath eyes with bristly black hairs, longer than those 

 of the beard; back of head red; outer surface of ears ashy, in- 

 ner surface white; hairs of back apically reddish, basally whitish; 

 a prominent throat ruff, of long, stiff hairs, black at the tips ; upper 

 parts of limbs colored like upper part of body ; lower parts of limbs 

 like under parts of body, ashy gray, but with traces of reddish 

 on the hind feet. Horns of male compressed and curved spirally 

 backwards; provided all around with raised cross rings; tapering 

 to thin and sharp tips; length, 20J inches. Female hornless. (Gme- 

 lin, 1774, vol. 3, pp. 487-491.) 



The above type description of orientalis may be compared with 

 the rather meager description of erskinei, which follows. "So far 

 as can be judged from the head and neck, the colour is less dis- 

 tinctly red than in the Cyprian [ophion] and Armenian [gmelinii] 

 races, while there is a distinct front outer angle to the horns, and a 

 strongly developed dark throat-ruff in winter" (Lydekker, 1913c, 

 vol. 1, p. 83). "The horns . . . sweep backwards in a spiral exactly 

 the opposite to that of those of the true urial .... The fineness 

 of the ridges on adult horns, the flatness of the inner surface of the 

 latter, and the bevelling off of the front angles, are . . . charac- 

 teristic .... The horns of the Persian sheep have a flatter front 

 surface [than those of gmelinii], more or less distinctly defined 

 from the lower surface, instead of merging imperceptibly into the 

 latter." (Lydekker, 1904d, p. 1031.) Length of horns on front 

 curve up to 27J inches (Ward, 1935, p. 298) . 



Sushkin (1925, p. 148) gives the range of orientalis as "eastern 

 part of Elburz Mountains, Persia"; of erskinei, as "Elburz Moun- 

 tains; Mount Savelan." 



According to Gmelin (1774, vol. 3, pp. 486, 492), this animal 

 lives in flocks in association with various goats in Mazanderan, 

 and is confined to the highest mountains. He speaks of having 

 been in a place where the horns, broken off in combats between the 

 rams, almost covered the earth. The flesh is a real delicacy, but the 

 wool is of scant value. 



Blanford (1876, p. 88) records a specimen from the Elburz 

 Mountains, north of Teheran, at an elevation of 12,000 feet. St. 

 John (in Blanford, 1876, p. 88) refers to the animal in those days 

 as "very plentiful everywhere." 



Lydekker (1913a, p. 258) mentions "a series of heads obtained 

 about 1904 at an elevation of some 10,000 ft." in the Elburz Range. 

 The type specimen of erskinei was included in this series. 



