176 MAMMALIA. 



pendent than any tame breeds of their kind, as may well be sup- 

 posed from their terrific abode amid the snowy peaks of He- 

 machal. They are gregarious, feed in the glens, seek refuge on 

 the tops, and leap and run with deer-like power, though as climb- 

 ers inferior to the Jharal (Hemitragus), or as leapers to the Musk. 

 They are often snowed up for days without perishing, unless 

 their breathing-holes betray them to man, a more terrible foe 

 than the direst inclemency of the season. They rut in winter, 

 gestate about 160 days, or perhaps six months, and breed early 

 in summer. 



The Nyens or Bambheras, or Wild Sheep, seldom or never 

 cross the Hemachal, the Indian side of which range is the spe- 

 cial habitat of the Nahoors, while to the north and west beyond 

 Thibet our animal is replaced by other species, so that Thibet 

 may be considered as the special habitat of one species (O. Am- 

 monides), and the plateaux north of Thibet as far as the Altai 

 of another (0. Ammon), cited as types of the true ovine form; 

 and it may be added, that the six sorts of tame Sheep of Thibet 

 and the sub-Himalayas, all without exception exhibit the essen- 

 tial characters of that form. 



There are several species that may be confounded under this 

 head ; the Siberian Argali is found in the most northern part 

 of that country, and it is probably different from the Himalayan 

 animal ; but I have not been able to discover any difference be- 

 tween the specimen received from Mr. Hodgson and those which 

 were sent from Siberia by the Russian naturalist. 



Pallas regards this and the next as one species, and observes : 

 " Nobilissimum et statura et agilitate animal ab Altaico et Me- 

 dio Asiss alpestri jugo ; per omnem orientalem montium tractum 

 usque in Peninsulam Camtschatcam imo verosimillime in Conti- 

 nente Americae locis maxime desertis vagatur, parvis gregibus 

 hominis frequentiam fugiens, frigoris patiens, montibus apricis 

 gaudens et asperrima loca frequentans. In occidentem vix pro- 

 cessit, ubi prsecedenti speciei (Caprovis orientalis), australiores 

 situs amanti, locum concessit." Pallas, Zool. Ross. Asiat. 232. 



5. CAPROVIS (ARGALI) CANADENSIS. The TAYE or BIG 



HORN. 



Grey-brown. Hair thin (in summer). Rump with a very large 

 white disk, with a narrow vertical line to the base of the tail, it 

 and the very short tail grey-brown like the back. Horns of male 

 very large, subtrigonal at the base, ringed, nearly equilaterally 

 triangular, bulging a little between the angles ; the inner front 

 angle obtusely prominent, the hinder double, forming a second 

 plane at a slight angle with the superior one, and the inferior 

 angle much rounded off. 



