1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 63 



OVIS CANADENSIS CANADENSIS SHAW 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN BIGHORN ; MOUNTAIN SHEEP ; EMAH-KI-KINI of the Black- 

 feet (G. B. GO 



Ovis canadensis Shaw, Naturalists Miscellany 15 : text to plate 610, 1804. 



Type locality. Mountains on Bow River, near Exshaw, Alberta. 



General characters. Large for a sheep; head and skull massive, with heavy 

 coiled wrinkled, permanent, horns in the old males (pis. 15 and 16) ; females 

 with small, slender, slightly curved horns; tail a mere rudiment, dewclaws 

 present on all 4 feet; hair coarse, smooth, and dense in winter coat with a 

 mere trace of fine wool concealed close to the skin, short and harsh in summer. 

 Summer pelage dark gray or slaty drab all over except a large white patch 

 covering rump, white stripes down back of hind legs from rump patch to heels, 

 short white stripes down back of front legs and small whitish areas on front 

 and back of belly, arotmd nose, and on ears; tail and line along back dark 

 brown. In winter, pelage light gray fading to lighter gray in spring. 



Measurements. Adult female from type region in Alberta: Total length, 

 1,540 mm; tail, 46; foot 140. Male from same region: Total length, 1,580; 

 tail, 98; foot, 410. Upper tooth row in typical male canadensis 81 to 86. 



Distribution and habitat. These sheep of the high peaks are 

 represented in the Biological Survey collection by one skin of the 

 fine old ram, from the Wallowa Mountains above Wallowa Lake, 

 taken about 1890 and presented by Harzinger of La Grande to 

 Stanley G. Jewett, in 1923, for the Bureau's collection. There is no 

 skull, but the skin is complete and in fairly good condition, taken 

 evidently in late summer or early autumn while in the dark sum- 

 mer coat. In color and pattern the skin agrees perfectly with the 

 typical Ovis canadensis canadensis .from Alberta in comparable 

 pelage, dark slaty drab all over except the large white rump patch, 

 white stripes from rump patch down back of legs to heels, short 

 white stripes down back of front legs, and a little soiled whitish on 

 front and back of belly and around nose and ears. The little stump 

 of a tail is brown, and a brown line from it along the back completely 

 divides the white rump patch above. No measurements are possible, 

 but in size the skin and hoofs seem to equal those of comparable 

 specimens of typical canadensis. The only skull seen from the Blue 

 Mountain region is a fragment of cranium with horn cores picked 

 up on the Wenaha River, and contributed to the Biological Survey 

 collection by W. H. Kendall. So far as it shows characters this 

 skull agrees with canadensis rather than with O. c. calif orniana. 



In the Blue Mountain section sheep have held out longer than 

 elsewhere in the State, and there only may be found a few (fig. 8). 

 In 1889 the carcass of a dead sheep was found on the side of Straw- 

 berry Butte and up to 1915, the writer was told, old horns were 

 occasionally found there, although no sheep had been known there 

 for many years. In the Baker Range there seems to be no record 

 of their recent occurrence, although they were said to have formerly 

 occupied these snowy peaks. 



In 1897 C. Hart Merriam was told that sheep had formerly oc- 

 cupied Strawberry Butte and the Green Horn Mountains, and that 

 one had been killed within 5 miles of Austin in 1895. 



In 1897 they still occupied the high ridges among the Wallowa 

 Mountains in considerable numbers. In September of that year the 

 writer found their tracks above timber line along the ridges above 

 Aneroid Lake and saw one fine old ram lying down in a grassy 



