CLASS MAMMALS: ORDER UNGULATA. 67 



the lower stage of mountain slopes, the Chamois the middle, 

 and the Ibex the highest* 



The Mountain Sheep, found wild on the Eocky Mountain 

 slopes, differs from the Ibex in having a convex forehead, 

 horns directed backward, then spirally forward, and two 

 kinds of hair, one being crimped. It feeds on grassy knolls 



Fig. 99. 



Oms montana, Mountain Sheep. Ji- 



surrounded by craggy rocks, to which it retreats when 

 attacked by wolves. Its horns sometimes grow so long and 

 curve so far forward and downward that it cannot graze on 

 level ground. 



The Domestic Sheep exhibits no less than forty well-marked 

 varieties, and yet so shading into one another that all have 

 doubtless originated from a common stock. f Its sharp, 



* The story of the Ibex throwing itself from lofty precipices and landing upon its 

 horns is considered a myth, though often reported by the earlier Naturalists. 



t The influence of climate is remarkably ehown in the tendency of the Merino 

 breed to develop an additional pair of horns when transferred from Spain to Peru. 

 A breed found in Syria have tails weighing from seventy-five to a hundred pounds, 



