518 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE HUFFED MOCFLON. 



ME1UNO SnEEP. 



than three feel in height at the shoulders. It is wonderfully agile, and leaps amazing distances 

 from one cliff to another. This species is clearly delineated on the monuments of Egypt. 



The Rocky Mountain Sheep — the Big Horn of Lewis and Clark; the Argali of Godman ; 

 the Moujlon (FAmerique of Desmarest — M. montanus, is a larger animal than the Mouflon, and 

 fully equals the Argali. The male appears like a powerful ram; the female resembles an ante- 

 lope. The horns of the male are enormous, measuring around the curve two feet and ten inches 

 long; sometimes these bend so much forward and downward as to prevent the animal from 

 feeding on the level ground. The weight of one of this species is about three hundred 

 pounds. The hair is coarse and slightly crimped, but has no resemblance to wool; at the roots, 

 however, there is a small quantity of soft fur. The color above is a light grayish-brown; beneath, 

 it is grayish-white. The young are produced, one and sometimes two at a time, in June and July. 

 In general, these animals are shy and wild, but in some secluded regions they seem not to have 

 learned to fear mankind, and are approached without difficulty. Their flesh is excellent. They 

 live in small flocks "ii the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains, from latitude 30° to 68° north. 

 They are said also to be mel with in the plains west of the Mississippi, and in the mountains of 

 < lalifornia and ( Oregon. I>r. Gray, with good reason, thinks this animal the same as the Argali 

 oi Siberia and Kamtschatka. This might have crossed at Behring's Straits, in some remote pe- 

 riod, and thus have storked the northwestern regions of America. 



Genus SHEEP: Ovis. — Of this, which includes the Domestic Sheep, there arc perhaps forty 

 well-known varieti< . " With the exception of the dog," says a graphic writer, "there is no one 

 oi the brute • reation which exhibits the diversity of size, color, form, covering, and general appear- 

 ance, which characterizes the sheep, and none which occupies a wider range of climate, or subsists 

 on a greater variety of food. In every latitude between the equator and the arctic, he ran. 

 over the sterile mountains, and through the fertile valleys. He feeds on almost every species of 

 edible forage, the cultivated grasses, clovers, cereals, and roots; he browses on aromatic and hit- 

 ter herbs; he crops the leaves and bark from the stunted forest shrubs, and the pungent, resinous , 

 In some parte of Norway and Sweden, when other resources fail, he subsists on fish ; 



