256 THE OVIS AMMON. 



and belly it is much lighter — almost white, in fact. Tlie 

 legs, which are rather lanky and comparatively slight for a 

 sheep, are also nearly white, with brown marks down their 

 front. The stern and haunches are a pale yellowish-white. 

 In old rams the hair in front of the shoulders is much 

 longer than elsewhere, and stands out in a sort of greyish- 

 white ruff. The muzzle is whitish and fine. Of tail there 

 is hardly a vestige. The massive, deeply -creased horns are 

 well arched upwards and backwards, their points curling 

 round to the front beside the cheeks like cart-wheels. In 

 weight the horns are not exceeded by those of any other 

 known animal of the sheep tribe except the Ovis Foli, 

 which inhabits the Pamir steppes and other more northern 

 parts of Turkestan. The horns of the Ovis Foli are, how- 

 ever, not so thick, though they are very much longer, and 

 have more curl and a much wider spread. About 40 inches 

 long and 17 or 18 inches in circumference at the base, may 

 be considered a fair average size for a good Ovis Ammon 

 ram's horns, though they often grow bigger ; but in almost 

 all large specimens the tips are broken, which takes several 

 inches off what the horns would be in length if perfect. A 

 head of about this size weighs quite 40 lb., yet it does not 

 look disproportionately large, nor does the animal appear to 

 be at all inconvenienced by its ponderous horns. The ewes 

 are considerably smaller than the rams, and rather lighter 

 in colour. They carry comparatively short and thin curved 

 horns, and have no white ruff. Strange to say, they are 

 much less wary than the old rams, which is rather unusual 

 with the females of the majority of gregarious wild animals. 

 They drop one lamb yearly in spring. Although Oves 

 Ammon usually affect open and more or less undulating 

 ground, they often ascend the sloping mountain-sides to 

 very great heiglits ; but they are not much addicted to nor 

 adapted for climbing, like the other kinds of Himalayan 

 wild sheep. In this respect the Ovis Ammon differs from 

 the animal nearest approaching it in appearance — the "big- 



