254 Mr. Blyth on the Genus Ovis. 



is 15 inches, and at the tips 6 inches; but another pair, upon the 

 stuffed specimen in the museum, which show the more usual sHght 

 spirature, are 26 inches long, having the widest portion 14 inches 

 apart, and the tips as much as 12 inches : this pair shows seven years 

 of growth, and their development was evidently completed, though 

 they are only 7 inches in girth at base. The female has seldom any 

 horns, which, when they exist, are ordinarily about 2 inches long. 



The character of the horn of the Moufflon is nearly the same as 

 that of the domestic Ram, only that it is never so much prolonged, 

 nor indeed to more than two-thirds of a circle : the inner front edge is 

 acute to near the base, where the outer one approaches to an equality 

 with it ; the first half being thus unequally triangular, and the re- 

 mainder much compressed, with strongly marked y-ngce, and having 

 the inner surface of the horn concave. It has always appeared to 

 me, however, that the specifical distinctness of the Moufflon is very 

 obvious, and I doubt whether it has contributed at all to the origin 

 of any tame race. That it interbreeds freely with the latter, under 

 circumstances of restraint, is well known ; but we have no informa- 

 tion of hybrids, or Umbri, as they are called, being ever raised from 

 wild Moufflons, though the fiocks of the latter will occasionally graze 

 in the same pasture with domestic sheep, and all but mingle among 

 them. The male of this animal is denominated in Corsica Mufro, and 

 the female Mufra, from which Buifon, as is well known, formed the 

 word Mouffion : and in Sardinia the male is called Murvoni, and the 

 female Murva, though it is not unusual to hear the peasants style 

 both indiscriminately Mufion, which (as Mr. Smyth remarks in his 

 description of that island,) is a palpable corruption of the Greek 

 Ophion. It is sometimes stated, but I do not knoM' upon what au- 

 thority, that a few of these animals are still found upon the moun- 

 tains of Murcia. 



12. The Cyprian Moufflon, figured and described by Messrs. 

 Brandt and Ratzebui'g from a specimen in the Berlin Museum, and 

 contrasted by them with M. F. Cuvier's figure of the Corsican animal, 

 is probably a distinct species, intermediate to O. Musimon and O. 

 Gmelini : its horns have more the curvature of those of the latter 

 species, but are not so robust, and curve round gradually backward 

 from the base, instead of at first diverging straightly, as in O. Gmelini ; 

 but the colour of the coat would appear to resemble that of the Cor- 

 sican Moufflon, only Avithout the rufous cast, and the specimen 

 figured wants also the saddle-like triangular white patch, which is 

 seldom* absent in the Moufflon of Sardinia and Corsica. The Tra- 



* Indeed never, as I now suspect, from observing that the hair composing 

 this triangular white patch in the Moufflon, tliough even with the rest of the 

 coat in summer, is in winter very much lengthened beyond the rest, form- 

 ing a sort of whorl, and imparting a singular aspect to the animal when 

 viewed otherwise than laterally. At the same season, the Moufflon has a 

 considerable standing mane of lengthened black hair on the nape and fore- 

 quarters, and that on the front of the neck is very copious and projecting, 

 being directed forwards from the lower part, and downwards from the upper 

 portion of die fore-neck. It is remarkable that the same lateral whorl of 

 lengthened white hairs occurs in certain breeds of domestic sheep. There is 

 now, for instance, in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, a pair of sheep 



