

BOVID& 357 



We thus find that Sheep are essentially inhabitants of high 

 mountainous parts of the world, for dwelling among which their 

 wonderful powers of climbing and leaping give them special 

 advantages. No species frequent by choice either level deserts, 

 open plains, dense forests, or swamps. By far the greater number 

 of species are inhabitants of the continent of Asia, one extending 

 into North America, one into Southern Europe, and one into North 

 Africa. No wild Sheep exist in any other part of the world, 

 unless the so-called Musk -Ox of the Arctic regions, the nearest 

 existing ally to the true Sheep, may be considered as one. Geo- 

 logically speaking, Sheep appear to be very modern animals, or 

 perhaps it would be safer to say that no remains that can be with 

 certainty referred to the genus have been met with in the hitherto 

 explored true Tertiary beds, which have yielded such abundant 

 modifications of Antelopes and Deer. They are generally con- 

 sidered not to be indigenous in the British Isles, but to have been 

 introduced by man from the East in prehistoric times. A fossil 

 Sheep (Ovis savigni), apparently allied to the Argali, has, however, 

 been described from the so-called Forest-bed of the Norfolk coast. 



The Sheep was a domestic animal in Asia and Europe before 

 the dawn of history, though quite unknown as such in the New 

 World until after the Spanish conquest. It has now been intro- 

 duced by man into almost all parts of the world where settled agri- 

 cultural operations are carried on, but flourishes especially in the 

 temperate regions of both hemispheres. Whether our well-known 

 and useful animal is derived from any one of the existing wild 

 species, or from the crossing of several, or from some now extinct 

 species, is quite a matter of conjecture. The variations of external 

 characters seen in the different domestic breeds are very great. 

 They are chiefly manifested in the form and number of the horns, 

 which may be increased from the normal two to four or even eight, 

 or may be altogether absent in the female alone, or in both sexes ; 

 in the form and length of the ears, which often hang pendent by 

 the side of the head ; in the peculiar elevation or arching of the 

 nasal bones in some Eastern races ; in the length of the tail, and 

 the development of great masses of fat at each side of its root, or 

 in the tail itself ; and in the colour and quality of the fleece. 



Ovibos. 1 This genus is generally considered to be a connecting 

 link between the Caprine and Bovine sections, but should rather 

 be regarded as an aberrant type of the former. Horns of adult 

 male rounded, smooth, and closely approximated at their bases, 

 where they are depressed and rugose ; curving downwards, and 

 then upwards and forwards. Muzzle caprine ; no suborbital gland, 

 no lachrymal fossa or fissure in skull ; orbits tubular ; a large narial 

 aperture and very short nasals ; premaxillae not reaching nasals. 

 1 De Blainville, Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 76. 



