298 CA.PRIN.E. 



especially in summer. They lamb in June and July, commonly producing 

 two young. 



When in rocky ground, there are few animals " which appear to move 

 with more ease and facility. On the faces of almost perpendicular cliffs of 

 the wildest character, it leaps from rock to rock with scarce an apparent 

 effort. In winter, when snowed in, they actually browse the hair off each 

 others' bellies, many together having retired under the shelter of some over- 

 hanging rock, from which they come out wretchedly poor."* 



The same sportsman, writing of the supposed difference between the 

 Ovis Nahoor and 0. urhel, states that, near Gangootrie, he saw some sheep 

 which appeared to differ slightly from the others, being apparently shorter, 

 more bulky and stouter, particularly about the head and neck, and the 

 horns shorter and more curved : on the same hills he saw females without 

 horns. The shikarees called them Moossa menda, to distinguish them 

 from the common Menda or Burrel. 



The Burrel gets very fat in September and October, and is most excellent 

 eating. 



Beyond the great central Snowy range, on the Tibet side, a magnificent 

 wild sheep is met with. This is the Ovis AMMON, Linnaeus (0. Argali, 

 Pallas ; 0. Ammonoides, of Hodgson j and 0. Hodgsonii, of Blyth). It is 

 the Hyan, Nuan, Nyan, Niar, Nyund, or Gnow, as differently spelled 

 by travellers, and pronounced in Tibet. 



It has not to my knowledge been killed on the Indian side of the hills 

 (though one writer states that it has been seen near the source of the 

 Ganges), and therefore cannot be introduced here as a member of the 

 Indian Fauna. One is said to have been killed nearly 13 hands in height, 

 i.e. 4 feet 4 inches ; but the more usual height is 3|- feet. One that stood this 

 height measured 6 feet 2 inches in length ; tail with the hair 8 inches ; 

 ear 6 ; horns along the curve 3 feet 4 inches, circumference at base 1 7 

 inches. Colonel Markham mentions that he has known the horns 24 inches 

 in circumference, and that the skull and horns of one when dry weighed 

 40 Ib. They are also stated to be sometimes so enormous that the animal 

 cannot feed on level ground, the horns reaching below the level of the 

 mouth. The natives say that foxes occasionally take up their abode in an 

 empty horn ! Those of the female do not reach more than 18 inches in 

 length, are nearly straight, with only a slight curve. The horns of the 

 male are much wrinkled, massive, trigonal, somewhat compressed, being 

 * Mountaineer, in " India Sporting Review." 



