70 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



relatives, though they climb well and like to live high up, care more 

 about good grazing than for skipping from rock to rock and nibbling 

 stray tufts of herbage or browsing on bushes, as Goats are so fond of 

 doing. The pasture of the Pamir in summer is of a very good and 

 nourishing character, but in winter there is a great scarcity of food in 

 this elevated and wind-swept region, and many of the giant Sheep 

 die of sheer hunger in the early spring, while others fall victims to 

 Wolves. Sometimes, too, whole flocks perish by getting snowed-up 

 and smothered in valleys through not moving out into the open in 

 time to avoid the coming storm. In spite of all these destructive 

 agencies, however, the Sheep held their own very well till ten years 

 ago, when an epidemic of rinderpest thinned them out as severely as 

 it has done other game animals in Africa. 



The gait of this Sheep when well on the move is a vigorous and 

 rapid gallop ; it is usually seen in herds, like all of its kind, but the 

 adult rams, the special objects of the sportsman's pursuit, keep 

 together in small parties. Now and then, of course, they fight, using 

 the same head-to-head butting tactics so familiar with our tame rams. 

 The flesh of this animal is more like beef than mutton, as might 

 indeed be expected from its size. 



None of the other wild Sheep have horns that can compare with 

 Marco Polo's, as they are much shorter, and have no second twist or 

 but a slight indication of one, merely curling round once or less. 

 There are, however, two other species which also deserve to be called 

 giant Sheep. The first of these is the Argali (Ovis ammon], found in 

 East Central Asia and Tibet, where it is known to sportsmen by its 

 native name of Nyan. This is, if anything, an even bigger animal 

 than Polo's Sheep ; with horns, although much shorter, very much 

 more massive, being about eighteen inches in circumference at the 

 base. This is the only giant Sheep which has been exhibited at our 

 Zoological Gardens. The other is the Bighorn (Oms canadensis), of 

 the mountains of the Pacific coast of North America ; the great Sheep 

 of Kamtchatka is also considered to be a race of this species. The 

 Bighorn is usually a darker-coloured animal than the other two species, 



