MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 6 r 



all, persecution abates when there is little left to perse- 

 cute : the most ruthless and indefatigable of hunters 

 will hardly care to track and run down the last band 

 of Norwegian reindeer or the last pair of African goril- 

 las. 



For the same reason, I do not believe that the wild 

 sheep of the North American continent will ever entirely 

 disappear from its mountain-haunts. The mountain 

 sheep or cimarron {Ovis montana) has many enemies 

 and is not very swift-footed, but it is probably the shy- 

 est quadruped of the New World. On the treeless high- 

 lands of our Central States it is no easy matter to get 

 within rifle-shot of a herd of " bighorns," as the Colorado 

 trapper calls them, but on their favorite pasture-grounds 

 in the Pinos Altos range, in Southern New Mexico, the 

 prospecting miner can sometimes approach them at the 

 time when the wild-rose-bushes are in full bloom and 

 confound the scent of the wary outposts. A herd of 

 grazing cimarrons is a curious sight : they do not con- 

 tent themselves with posting a single sentinel, after the 

 manner of the antelopes and wild llamas, but all the 

 veterans, especially the nursing ewes, take their turn 

 at the picket-post, and every now and then run to the 

 next rock and rise on their hind-legs in order to enlarge 

 their field of view. A low snort, accompanied by a 

 stamping or scraping kick, is a sign of vague suspicion, 

 and puts the whole herd on the qui vive ; even the young 

 kids crowd around their dams and anxiously await the 



