224 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by J. W. McLellan] 



[Highbury. 



BURHAL WILD SHEEP. 



Sometimes called the Blue Sheep. They have a wide range both on the Himalaya and 

 north of those mountains. 



Canada, and becoming scarce in the 

 United States, though a few are 

 found here and there at various 

 points on the Rocky Mountains 

 as far south as Mexico. In habits 

 it is much the same as other 

 wild sheep that is to say, it 

 haunts the rock-hills and " bad 

 lands " near the mountains, feeding 

 on the scanty herbage of the high 

 ground, and not descending unless 

 driven down by snow. 



The bighorn sheep are very 

 partial to salt. Mr. Turner 

 Turner, who hunted them in 

 East Kooteney, says : " Wild sheep 

 make periodical excursions to the 

 mountain-tops to gorge themselves 

 with salty clay. They may remain 

 from an hour to two days, and 

 when killed their stomachs will 

 be found full of nothing but the 

 clay formed from denuded lime- 

 stone, which they lick and gnaw until sometimes deep tunnels are formed in the cliffs, large 

 enough to hide six or seven sheep. The hunter, standing over one of these warrens, may 

 bolt them within two yards of him. In the dead of winter sheep often come to the woods to 

 feed on fir-trees. At such times they may be seen mixed with black-and-white-tailed deer, 

 low on a river-bank. I have known them come within forty yards of an inhabited hut." 



While on the subject of the fondness of sheep and deer for salt, we may mention an 

 anecdote told by Mr. H. C. Nelson in Country Life. He was sleeping with two other friends 

 in a hut in the mountains where some miners had lived for a time. These men, when 

 they washed up their pots and pans, threw the slops away at a certain place close by the 

 hut. As all water used for cooking meat has salt put into it, a little salt remained on the 

 surface. This the wild deer had found out, and were in the habit of coming to lick it at 

 night. Mr. Nelson had a shot at one some twenty yards from the hut. 



The bighorn sheep stands from 3 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 6 inches at the shoulder. The 

 horns are of the general type of the argalis, but smoother. Another bighorn is found in 

 Kamchatka. There is also a beautiful white race of bighorn inhabiting Alaska. The typical 

 Rocky Mountain race is browner than the Asiatic argalis, and in winter is dark even beneath 

 the front parts of the body. It is not found on the high peaks of the great ranges, but on 

 difficult though lower ground on the minor hills. 



THE OORIAL. 



The vast range of the Himalaya affords feeding-ground to other species of wild sheep 

 and wild goat, so different in the shape of the horns that the variations of the ovine race 

 under domestication need not be matter for wonder when so much variety is seen in nature. 



The OORIAL, or SHA, is found in North-west India, on the Trans-Indus Mountains, and 

 in Ladak, Northern Tibet, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan, and Southern Persia. The 

 horns make a half-curve backwards, and are flattened. The angle with the horizontal line 

 across the ears is about half a right angle. The coat is of a reddish-brown colour, with white 

 on the belly, legs, and throat. This species has a very wide geographical distribution, and is- 

 the only wild sheep found in India proper. 



