INDIAN SHOOTING 291 



of getting kakur is by strolling through the forest in the early 

 morning and evening when, if there are any about, the sports- 

 man is pretty sure to see or hear them. 



XXXI. THE LARGE WILD SHEEP OF INDIA 



{Oves Poll, Atnmon, ^c.) 



In Central and Northern Asia there were at one time no fewer 

 than eight recognised varieties of giant wild sheep, viz. O, Poli, 

 O. Karelbii, O. Heiusi, O. 7iigrimonta?ia, O. Ainmon, O. Hodg- 

 \sanii, O. Brookei, O. fiivicola. 



Mr. W. T. Blanford, however, after inspecting a magnifi- 

 icent collection of heads, made by Hon. C. EUis, which exhibit 

 kvery gradation of curve between the two extreme types, de- 

 jtlared in his paper to the Zoological Society in 1884 that he 

 jconsidered O. Poll and O. Karelini to be practically the same 

 [species, and the formidable list may be further reduced from 

 11 sportsman's view b> massing the varieties into three broad 

 types, viz : 



[ I. a Poll with its little known varieties, O. Heinsi, and 

 p. nigrimontana ; for though these appear to differ somewhat 

 |In size {O. nigrifnontana being a comparatively small animal), 

 j:heir horns are of the same wide-spreading type. 



I 2. O. Amman, O. Hodgsonii 2ind O. Brooket ; the difference 

 j>etween the first two is very trifling, and O. Brookei is con- 

 l;idered by some authorities to be possibly a hybrid between 

 O. ffodgsonii diwd O. Vignei {^hdi^oo). 



y O. nivicola, which more nearly resembles O. montana 

 luc Bighorn of the Rocky Mountains). 



II The first type is found, according to M. Severtzoff, only in 

 purkestan, from the Pamir through the Thian Shan range as far 



'''^^ wards as Tengri Khan ; its varieties being located as fol- 



: O. Heinsi'm the Tockmack district west of Tengri Khan ; 



^ ;rh7ioiitana in Karatan, near Samarcand. 



1 he second type is not found in Turkestan. Its range is the 



tJtai from Tengri Khan as far cnstward as the sea of Baikal, 



u 2 



