296 CAPRINE. 



distance, the Oorial is a game-looking animal, looking more like an 

 antelope than a sheep, and it is very speedy and active over rocky and 

 stony ground. Hutton remarks that it possesses " a moderate-sized 

 lachrymal sinus, which appears to secrete, or at all events contains, a 

 thick gummy substance of good consistency and of a dull grayish 

 colour. The Afghan and Belooch hunters make use of this gum, by 

 spreading it over the pans of their matchlocks, to prevent the damp 

 from injuring the priming." 



The nearly allied Ovis Vignei, Blyth, is the Sha^oo or Slid of Tibet 

 and Ladak, Ovis montana apud Cunningham, and is not found in general 

 below 12,000 feet of elevation in summer. It is found in the Hindoo 

 Koosh, the Pamir range, and west as far as the Caspian Sea ; also in 

 Ladak. Further east it is replaced by the next species. In this the 

 horns are more strongly wrinkled, curve outwards and backwards, with 

 divergent points, and do not tend to form so complete a circle as in 

 cydoceros. The colour of the sheep is brownish- or reddish-gray, and its 

 beard is short. The suborbital pits are smaller, deeper, and more 

 rounded in cydoceros ; the nasal bones are shorter ; and the series of 

 molar teeth is also shorter than in 0. Viynei. 



The next sheep was placed by Hodgson as the type of his genus 

 Pseudovis, with smooth and sub-cylindrical horns that form a bold arc 

 outwards, and have the tip turned backward. They have no eye-pits, 

 and want the mane and beard of the last group. 



237. Ovis Nahura. 



HODGSON. BLYTH, Cat. 549. 0. Nahoor, HODGSON. 0. Burhel, 

 BLYTH, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. VII. 248, with figure. -Shared and 

 JBharur, in the Himalayas ; the male Menda. Wd or War, on the 

 Sutlej. Nervati, in Nepal. Nd or Snd of Ladak and Tibet. 



THE BURHEL, OR BLUE WILD SHEEP. 



Descr. Horns moderately smooth, with the wrinkles not numerous, 

 rounded, nearly touching at the base, directed upwards, backwards, and 

 outwards with a semicircular sweep, then the rounded points are recurved 

 forwards and inwards. Colour of the pelage dull slaty-blue, more or less 

 tinted with fawn-colour or pale earthy-brown ; beneath yellowish-white ; 

 the nose, front of limbs, a band along the flanks, the chest and the tip of 

 the tail black ; the edge of the buttocks behind, and the tail, pure white. 



