NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 367 



lupe Mountains from Guadalupe Peak in Texas north to Dog 

 Canyon in New Mexico is "a permanent game refuge that 

 could easily support a thousand bighorns, the desirability of 

 reestablishing the local race is apparent. "Under wise control 

 and a definite plan for use of the surplus game, either for 

 hunting or stocking other ranges, such an area could be made 

 not only self-supporting but a valuable piece of property" 

 (Bailey, 1931). 



In western Texas, in addition to the Guadalupe Mountains, 

 a few sheep formerly were found in the Eagle and Corozones 

 Mountains and on the northwest side of the Chisos Mountains. 

 "They come into the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande 

 mainly from the Mexican side . . . The sheep are by no 

 means confined to isolated mountain ranges. In several 

 valleys I saw tracks," writes Bailey (1905) "where they had 

 crossed from one range to another through open Lower Sonoran 

 country. In this way they easily wander from range to range 

 over a wide expanse of country in western Texas, and might be 

 considered to have an almost or quite continuous distribution 

 between the Guadalupe Mountains and the desert ranges of 

 Chihuahua." Here they have more or less held their own for 

 many years, and in the wildlife census of 1939 were estimated 

 to number 280 individuals. . 



No data are at hand as to the status of this race in eastern 

 Chihuahua, Mexico, but since the time of Bailey's investiga- 

 tions a study of the bighorn sheep in Texas was carried out in 

 1938 by W. B. Davis and W. P. Taylor (1939), which affords 

 an excellent summary of present numbers and living condi- 

 tions. This sheep is now confined in Texas to the extreme 

 western wing of the State west of the Pecos River, an arid 

 region having a scanty rainfall averaging between 9 and 17 

 inches annually, depending somewhat on elevation. About 1 

 percent of this area is under cultivation, and the rest is used 

 for grazing. "The present range of the Texas bighorn in Texas 

 is considerably more restricted than it was when Vernon Bailey 

 worked in trans-Pecos Texas at the turn of the century." 

 None occur now in the Chisos and Corozones Mountains or in 

 the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande, and they seem to have 

 been absent in these areas for the past ten or fifteen years. 

 "The heaviest concentration is north of the Texas and Pacific 

 Railway in the Beach, Baylor, Carrizo, and Diablo mountains, 



