ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 581 



Shensi, but no other Western hunter or collector appears even to have heard 

 of this type of sheep in this region. . . . 



Though formerly plentiful, the North China wild sheep is now practically 

 extinct in the eastern section of its range, and is only at all plentiful in the 

 high mountains in Suiyuan, from immediately west of K'uei-hua-ch'eng west- 

 ward to north of Pao-t'ou. Here it is in grave danger of extermination at 

 the hands of American and European so-called sportsmen from Tientsin and 

 Peiping. Recently several shooting parties have committed the grossest out- 

 rages in killing large numbers of ewes and small rams, which were sent back 

 to Peiping and Tientsin in a frozen condition and distributed as food. The 

 natives also hunt these fine sheep for food, and there is no doubt that the 

 species is doomed to extinction unless protected. 



Semipalatinsk Argali 



Ovis AMMON COLLIUM Severtzov 



O[vis] collium Severtzov, Izviestia Imper. Obshchestvo Liub. Estest., Antrop. 

 i Etnogr. [Moscow], vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 154, 1873. (Based upon the "Arkhari 

 ou Moutons-des rochers" of Kareline (1841, p. 563), inhabiting "les monts 

 Arkhates et les monts Tchinguis"; type locality here restricted to the 

 Cm'nghiz-tau, in the Kirghiz Steppe, east of Karkaralinsk and north of 

 Lake Balkash (c/. Kareline, 1841, p. 562).) 



FIGS.: Proc, Zool. Soc. London 1900, p. 114, fig.; Nasonov, 1914a, pis. 3, 5, 

 and 1923, pi. 9, fig. 2, pi. 18. 



If this sheep is not exterminated, it is in any case very rare (W. G. 

 Heptner, in litt., December, 1936) . 



The general color varies from chocolate-brown to yellowish brown 

 (Nasonov, 1923, p. 82). "Nasonov's figure shows a large white- 

 muzzled argali, with horns approximating closely to the 0. a. poli 

 type, but stouter and less expanded" (Lydekker, 1916, vol. 5, p. 98). 



According to Nasonov (1923, pp. 79-80), the range includes the 

 mountains (Ortau) in the eastern part of Akmolinsk, the mountains 

 in the Karkaralinsk and Kyzyl-tau districts of Semipalatinsk, and 

 the Chinghiz-tau and the Arkat Mountains north of Lake Balkash ; 

 it also extends eastward to the Irtish River in the vicinity of Zaisan 

 Nor and southward to the Tarbagatai, Monrak, and Saur Moun- 

 tains. Sushkin (1925, p. 149) omits the Monrak and Saur Moun- 

 tains from the range. 



Kareline (1841, p. 563) speaks of securing several specimens on 

 the Chinghiz-tau in 1840. 



Jair Argali 



Ovis AMMON SAIRENSIS Lydekker 



Ovis sairensis Lydekker, Wild Oxen, Sheep, & Goats, p. 185, 1898. ("The 

 Sair, or Saiar Mountains, situated in the Great Altai on the north-western 

 border of Mongolia, nearly due east of a point midway between the 

 Semipalatinsk and the Semirechinsk Altai, in latitude [ longitude] 86 

 E. longitude [= latitude] 47." Type locality later given by Lydekker 



