588 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Size small. "Above dark brown, slightly paler on the neck, 

 greyish-brown on the flanks, belly and rump white; tail, greyish- 

 brown; mane, tinged with grey . . . ; head, darker than the neck, 

 with white face markings. Legs dirty white, with dark reddish - 

 brown stripes." Horns resembling those of Ovis vignei blanjordi; 

 flat-surfaced, sharp-edged, and deeply grooved on frontal surface; 

 tips remarkably thick and blunt, turning outward; length along 

 front curve 35J inches. (Carruthers, 1909, p. 623.) The throat- 

 ruff does not reach the lower part of the head. Horns of female 

 14 cm. (Nasonov, 19146, p. 776.) 



Sushkin (1925, p. 149) gives the distribution as "Range Nuratau 

 or Karatau, southern part of Desert Kizyl-Kum," and adds that 

 this is "not to be confounded with another Karatau, habitat of 

 nigrimontana, which lies much farther north." He also says 

 (p. 153) : "Of 0. polii, the least specialized form is severtzovi of 

 the hill-ranges of Kisyl-Kum Desert. Its origin is supposed to be 

 postpliocenic and preglacial. . . . Next to severtzovi comes, geo- 

 graphically and morphologically, nigrimontana of the westernmost 

 branch of the Tian-Shan System." 



As long ago as 1872 A. P. Choroschichin found this sheep in 

 Aktau, in the southern part of Kizil Kum, and saw two at the 

 spring Ak-Kuduk, in the mountains between Aktau and Tamdy 

 (Nasonov, 19146, p. 761). Nasonov (19146, p. 763) records speci- 

 mens from Nuratau, Aktau, and Petro-Alexandrovsk. 



Carruthers (1915, pp. 150-151) writes of this as "an exceedingly 

 beautiful little wild sheep," "which is restricted to the most outlying 

 desert hills of this mountain world" [southeastern Russian Turke- 

 stan]. "The Nurata Dagh is a ridge about a hundred miles long." 

 In 1908 "the sheep existed on the further half of the range alone, 

 being found in twos and threes, as well as in herds of a dozen or 

 more. . . . Owing to the presence of native shepherds and their 

 flocks they are very wary of man, never allowing a close approach 

 . . . . Their refuge is in the ruggedness of the escarpments, not in 

 high altitude or huge areas of rolling country. There is no portion 

 of their habitat which is more than 2,000 feet above the plain." 



Kashgarian Argali; Hume's Argali 



Ovis AMMON HUMEI Lydekker 



Ovis ammon humei Lydekker, Cat. Hume Bequest Brit. Mus., p. 6, .1913. 

 . ("To the south of Chatir Kul, on the Thian Shan" (Brooke and Brooke, 



1875, p. 513); "Tian Shan, north-west of Kashgar" (Lydekker, 1913c, 



vol. 1, p. 106).) 

 FIGS.: Severtzov, 1873, pis. 2, 3; Stoliczka, 1874, pi. 53 (inaccurate); Brooke 



and Brooke, 1875, p. 512, figs. 2, 3; Carruthers, 1915, pi. 59, lower fig. 



