GENUS OVIS. 



FROM the Goats, so closely allied, we naturally 

 pass to the generally accepted genus Ovis or Sheep, 

 and as we proposed, we add Major Smith's character. 



" Horns common to hoth sexes, sometimes want- 

 ing in die females. They are voluminous, more or 

 less angular, transversely wrinkled, pale coloured, 

 turned latterly in spiral directions, first towards the 

 rear, vaginating upon a porous bony axis. The fore- 

 head and chaffron arched ; they have no lachrymal 

 sinus, no muzzle, no inguinal pores, no heard pro- 

 perly so called. The females have two mammae ; tail 

 rather short, ears small, legs slender, hair of two 

 kinds, one harder and close, the other woolly. In a 

 domestic state, the wool predominates, the horns vary 

 or disappear, the ear and tail lengthen, and several 

 other characters undergo modifications. The genus 

 is gregarious in the mountains of the four quarters of 

 the globe/'* 



On comparing the above with the characters given 

 to Capra, the differences will not be found to be 

 very great, consisting chiefly in the form of the horns 



* Major Smith in (inttith's Cuvier. 



