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, Amman, &*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. Karelini, O. Heinsi, O. nigrimontana, O. Amman, O. Hodg- 

 sonii, O. Brookei, O. nivicola. 



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

 cent collection of heads, made by Hon. C. Ellis, which exhibit 

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

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

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

 species, and the formidable list may be further reduced from 

 a sportsman's view b) massing the varieties into three broad 

 types, viz : 



1. O. Poli with its little known varieties, O. Heinsi, and 

 O. nigrimontana ; for though these appear to differ somewhat 

 in size (O. nigrimontana being a comparatively small animal), 

 their horns are of the same wide-spreading type. 



2. O. Ammon, O. Hodgsonii and O. Brookei ; the difference 

 between the first two is very trifling, and O, Brookei is con- 

 sidered by some authorities to be possibly a hybrid between 

 O. Hodgsonii and O. Vignei (Shapoo). 



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

 (the Bighorn of the Rocky Mountains). 



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

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

 eastwards as Tengri Khan ; its varieties being located as fol- 

 lows : O. Heinsi in the Tockmack district west of Tengri Khan ; 

 O. nigrimontana in Karatan, near Samarcand. 



The second type is not found in Turkestan. Its range is the 

 Altai from Tengri Khan as far eastward as the sea of Baikal, 



U 2 



