ORDER ARTIODACTYLA: EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 583 



Littledale's Argali; Kulja Argali 



Ovis AMMON LITTLEDALEI Lydekker 



O[vis] sairensis littledalei Lydekker, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1902, vol. 2, 

 p. 83, 1902. ("One of the tributaries of the Hi Valley on the northern 

 flank of the eastern Thian-Shan, some distance to the southeast of Kuldja 

 or Hi," Chinese Turkestan.) 



FIGS.: Lydekker, op. cit., pi. 7, fig. 1; Lydekker, 1913a, pi. 22, fig. 2 (type), 

 and 1913c, vol. 1, p. 102, fig. 30; Carruthers, 1913, pi. facing p. 550, and 

 1915, pis. 57, 64; Leister, 1935, p. 61, fig. 



A quarter of a century ago this sheep was decidedly numerous, 

 but probably its numbers have now declined to some extent. 



General color of upper parts bright rufous-fawn, darker on 

 middle of back, but no distinct dorsal line or flank band; head 

 grayish brown, muzzle pure white; throat ruff and tail pale yellow- 

 ish fawn; thighs colored like back; no light rump-patch. Horns 

 forming a little more than one complete turn; rising from the 

 head at a much greater angle than in ammon and polii; more 

 massive and less elongated than those of polii; length up to 58 

 inches; girth 17 inches. (Lydekker, 1902, pp. 81-82, and 1913c, 

 vol. 1, p. 102.) 



Sushkin (1925, p. 149) gives the range of littledalei as "Dzun- 

 garian Alatau, west to the, River Chilik (tributary of Hi), east 

 along upper Hi and Yulduss; perhaps as far as Kami." 



Severtzoff (1876, p. 220) writes as follows concerning sheep on 

 the Russian side of the Dzungarian Alatau: "In the neighbourhood 

 of Copal, ... in the central steppes of Kara, . . . the sheep have 

 been driven out from these places and only visit them late in the 

 autumn. In places where good meadows and rocky places are found, 

 sheep can be met with ... to about 10,000 feet at the rivers Lepsa, 

 Larkan, Kora, Karatala, and Koksa." 



Prejevalsky (1879, p. 45) reports "Ovis Poli" as often seen in 

 Yulduz, in the central Tian Shan, in herds of thirty to forty. 



Most of our information concerning littledalei is due to J. H. 

 Miller and Douglas Carruthers, although they refer to it as karelini. 



In two days in 1911, on the southern slopes of the Dzungarian 

 Alatau, "I must have seen not less than three hundred ewes and 

 young, but not a single ram" (Miller, in Carruthers, 1913, p. 557) . 

 Later a number of rams were secured here, in the upper Borotala 

 Valley, which is referred to (p. 578) as "undoubtedly one of the 

 finest sheep countries in Central Asia." 



Miller (in Carruthers, 1913, pp. 569-570, 593) writes: 



The distribution of Ovis ammon karelini [in reality, littledalei] stretches 

 from the north-east end of the [ Dzungarian 1 Ala-tau Mountains, which is 

 their northern limit, westwards along the range to the head of the Borotala, 

 and from there eastwards along the whole length of the northern declivities 



