NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 371 



tains, 4; Gila Mountains, not including the Tinajas Altas, 15; 

 Kofas, 25; Trigos, 10-15; Chocolate Mountains, 6 or 7; Buck- 

 skin Mountains, 10-12; west end of Harcuvar Mountains, 7 or 

 8; Black Mountains, 60-75; Superstition Mountains, 47; while 

 C. T. Vorhies adds that there were known to be at least 6 in 

 the Tucson Mountains and about 71 in the Santa Catalina 

 Mountains altogether approximately 275 animals. 



NELSON'S BIGHORN; DESERT BIGHORN 



Ovis CANADENSIS NELSONI Merriam 



Ovis nelsoni Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 11, p. 218, July 15, 1897 

 ("Grapevine Mountains, on boundary between California and Nevada"). 



This is a "comparatively small Bighorn, with rather slender 

 horns somewhat triangular in cross-section near base; color 

 very pale; white rump patch divided lengthwise to base of tail 

 with dark line" (H. H. T. Jackson, in Ely and others, 1939). 

 Molar teeth heavy, horns slender. Total length, 1,280 mm.; 

 tail, 100; height at shoulder, 830. In its pale salmon-gray 

 pelage, this subspecies is strikingly different from the Rocky 

 Mountain bighorn ; and its ears' are noticeably longer. 



This pale, small race is found in the desert mountain ranges 

 of southeastern California east of the Sierras and in the ad- 

 jacent parts of southern Nevada. Although the limits of dis- 

 tribution have not been carefully worked out, Dr. J. Grinnell 

 (1933) regarded it as the form now or lately in the mountain 

 ranges of Inyo and Mohave Desert regions, northeast to Owens 

 Valley, Mono County, south to the Chocolate Mountains in 

 Imperial County, and west to San Bernardino, San Gabriel, 

 and (formerly) the Tejon Mountains and the southern end of 

 San Joaquin Valley, California. 



Recent observations on the status of this desert race are few. 

 According to Burt (1934, p. 424) they are still common in the 

 Sheep Mountains of southern Nevada, and he was informed of 

 a herd of 24 at Corn Creek which watered at a cattle tank. 

 They were formerly common in the Charleston Mountains, 

 but few if any were left by 1934, although Burt was told of a 

 small band seen shortly before, along the southwestern border 

 of the mountains. In California they are somewhat more re- 

 stricted than formerly but still remain in some numbers in the 

 desert regions of the southeastern parts of the State. The 



