Mr. BIyth on the Genus Ovis. 251 



According to M. Gmclin, this species is found only on the high- 

 est mountains of Persia. Its rutting season takes place in Sep- 

 tember, and lasts a month ; and the female yeans in March, i)ro- 

 ducing two or three lambs at a time ; the males, he informs us, are 

 very quarrelsome amongst each other, insomuch that he had been at 

 one place where the ground was completely strewed with horns that 

 had been knocked off in their contests ; so that if any variation in 

 the flexure of these horns had been observable, this industrious na- 

 turalist would doubtless have remarked it. Sir John McNeill in- 

 formed me that " it appears to be the common species of the moun- 

 tains of Armenia ; occurring likewise on the north-west of Persia ;"' 

 but the wild sheep of the central parts of Persia is evidently distinct, 

 " having horns much more resembling those of the domestic Ram, 

 being spiral, and completing more than one spiral circle. I think I 

 am not mistaken in supposing," continues Sir John, " that I have also 

 had females of this species brought to me by the huntsmen with 

 small horns, resembling those of the ewes of some of our domestic 

 sheep ; but, on reflection, I find that I cannot assert this positively, 

 though I retain the general impression." It is highly probable that 

 a wild type of 0. Aries is here adverted to, which would thus in- 

 habit the same ranges of mountains as the wild common Goat (C. 

 ^gagrus) ; and with respect to the circumstance of horns in the female 

 sex, I may here remark that this character is very apt to be incon- 

 stant throughout the present group. It has already been noticed in 

 the instance of 0. Nahoor ; and the elder Gmelin states that the fe- 

 males of 0. Amnion are sometimes hornless, while those of the Cor- 

 sican 0. Musimon are generally so. The same likewise happens in 

 different species of wild Goats, in the Goral of India, and in the 

 prong-horned animal of North America ; and even in the Gazelles, 

 and other ovine-nosed species of what are commonly confused toge- 

 ther under the name of Antelope, there have been instances of horn- 

 less males as well as females. A male Springbok of this description, 

 as I am informed by Col. Hamilton Smith, was long in the possession 

 of the Empress Josephine ; and the specimen of Ixalus Probaton, 

 Ogilby, in the museum of this Society, doubtless affords another ex- 

 ample of the same phsenomenon. 



10. O. Vignei, nobis: the Sha (not Sna) of Little Thibet, and 

 Koch*^ of the Sulimani range between India and Khorassan. This 

 fine species is closely allied to the Corsican Moufflon, but is much 

 larger, with proportionally longer limbs, and a conspicuous fringe 

 of lengthened blackish hair down the front of the neck, and not 

 lying close, as in the Moufflon f- Its size, I am informed by Mr. 

 Vigne, is that of a large FaUow Deer ; and from the general appear- 

 ance of these animals, their length of leg, and smftness on the 



* Koch appears to be generic for Sheep, and the same word as Kutch 

 in " Kiitch-gar," or Koosh in " Koosh-gar," applied to 0. Polii. — E. B. 



\ At least, as in the jVIoiifflon in summer garb ; for, in winter, it hangs 

 out loosely also in the latter species, but is much more copious than appa- 

 rently in O. Vignei, and al&o resembles less the pendent hair of the same 

 part in 0. Tragelaphus. — E. B. 



