214 



KAMSGHATKA. 



[chap. 



is marked with an ill-defined dark patch, and the lips are nearly 

 white. On the anterior aspect the legs are of a dark glossy brown, 

 but posteriorly a narrow wliite line runs down tlie entire length 



KAMSCHATKAN BIGHOKN. {Ovis nivicolci.) 



of the limb. The tail is short and dark brown ; the rmnp and the 

 centre of the belly pure white. The ears are remarkably short.^ 

 The Bighorn in Kamschatka appears especially to frequent the 



^ Sir Victor and Mr. Basil Brooke in their article on Asiatic Sheep in the ' ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society " (1875, p. 509), remark on the resemblance of the 

 horns of this species to those of the American Bighorn (Ovin montana), ■with which, 

 indeed, it has by some naturalists been regarded as identical. But the uniformly 

 smaller size of the head, the shortness and great breadth of the skull in its anterior 

 aspect, the slight development of the pre-orbital fossa, and the protuberance of the 

 orbit itself, serve markedly to distinguish the Kamschatkan species. The horns are 

 less rugose than those of 0. montana ; their frontal surfiice is convex ; the orbital 

 surface at first concave, then flat, thus causing the fronto-orbital edge to be very 

 sharp. The nuchal surface is convex, and afterwards flattened, and the two re- 

 maining edges are rounded. 



