CHAPTER XVII. 



SOME BRIEF NOTES ON THE WILD SHEEP OF 

 INDIA AND THE HIMALAYAS 



1. THE Ovis AMMON OR NYAN (Ovis Hodgsoni} 



2. THE BURHEL (Ovis Nahura vel Burhet] 



3. THE SHAPOO (Ovis Vignei} 



4. THE OORIAL (Ovis Cycloceros) 



THE OVIS AMMON OR NYAN (Ovis Hodgsoni) 



THIS splendid wild sheep, which is so closely 

 allied to other similar forms inhabiting North- 

 ern and Central Asia, as to suggest that the differ- 

 ences between them and it are no greater than can 

 be accounted for by diversities in habitat and in 

 food, is found in austere Thibet. The flesh of this 

 sheep is tender, and excellent for the table. 



General Kinloch thus graphically describes the 

 country inhabited by this animal : 



" On the wild, bleak uplands of Thibet, where for 

 hundreds of miles not a tree is to be met with ; 

 where in every direction, as far as the eye can 

 reach, there is nothing but a vast expanse of barren 

 soil, rock, and snow ; where there is no shelter from 

 the glare of a cloudless noon, nor from the freezing 

 winds that sweep the naked hills with relentless 



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