HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 297 



the tail is very short in both sexes ; the color In sum- 

 mer is generally grayish fawn, with a reddish or 

 yellowish line down the back, and a large patch of 

 the same color on the buttocks ; and the under part, 

 and the insides of the legs are either russet, yellowish, 

 or of a white sand color ; in winter the color of the 

 upper part is more reddish, and the throat and breast 

 are more inclining to white ; but the patch on the 

 buttocks remains much the same at all seasons. 



These animals are found in little flocks, of about 

 twenty or thirty in each, on the Rocky Mountains, 

 and extending southward as far as California. Several 

 naturalists have expressed their conviction that the 

 mouflon of the south of Europe, the Argali of Asia, and 

 the wild sheep of America, are only climatal varieties 

 of one great species, to which they have given the 

 name of '^mountain sheep ;" but whether this is or is 

 not positively the fact, we have no means of ascertain- 

 ing. Probability is in favor of it, however, and the 

 more so that, among the domesticated sheep, which 

 we have every reason to believe are all originally of 

 the same stock, whatever that stock may have been, 

 there are differences of external appearance fully 

 greater than any which are to be met with among the 

 wild ones ; and we believe that, in the whole genus, 

 there are no differences but external ones. Some 

 further confusion and uncertainty is produced among 

 these wild sheep by the conduct of the keepers of 

 museums, who have filled these with horns and other 

 scraps, not having any history, and which have, in 

 consequence, been referred to places where they are 

 not to be found. The great puzzle in the history of 

 this genus, however, is the proneness which it has to 

 break into varieties, not only in different countries, 



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