224 UNGULATES. 



the neighbourhood of Peshawui*, whence it ranges all through Sind, Baluchistan, 



and Afghanistan into Eastern Persia. The variety found in Baluchistan and 



Kelat is characterised by the very open spiral formed by the horns, so that the 



tips diverge much more than usual ; this variety was at one time regarded as a 



distinct species under the name of 0. blanfordi. 



Regarding the different habitats of the urial, Mr. Blanford 

 Habits. . . . . . 



observes that in Ladak this sheep inhabits open valleys ; in Astor 



and Gilgit it keeps to grassy ground at moderate elevations below the forest ; in 



the Salt range of the Punjab, and in Sind, Baluchistan, and Persia, it is found on 



undulating or hilly ground cut up by ravines, and is more often seen on stony and 



rocky hillsides than amongst bushes and scrub. The herds vary usually from 



three or four to twenty or thirty in number ; the sexes are generally together, but 



the males often keep apart in summer. These sheep are wary and active ; although 



not such masters of the art of climbing amongst precipices as the goats, tahr, or 



bharal, they get over steep places with wonderful ease. Their alarm-cry is a shrill 



whistle, their usual call a kind of bleat. In the Punjab the breeding-season is in 



September, but it must be considerably later in Astor, where the lambs are born 



early in June. There are either one or two young at a birth ; and the species will 



freely interbreed with domestic sheep. The Punjab and Sind urial inhabits a 



hotter area than any other species of wild sheep ; and it is remarkable that a 



single species should have been able to adapt itself to climates so different from one 



another as are those of the Punjab and Ladak. 



In the Salt range of the Punjab the urial may occasionally be seen grazing 



with domestic sheep ; but they are soon disturbed by the sight of a European. The 



broken nature of the ground, with numerous sharp ridges, separated by deep and 



narrow ravines, renders, however, urial-stalking a comparatively easy sport. 



The Armenian and Cyprian Sheep (Ovis gmelini and 0. ophion). 



The Armenian sheep brings us to the first of a group of three comparatively 

 small species distinguished from the urial by the total absence of horns in the 

 ewes, the want of a distinct ruff on the chin of the rams, and the much finer 

 wrinkles on the front of their horns, as well as by the tail being always dark- 

 coloured. The Armenian sheep, which inhabits Eastern Persia and Asia Minor, and 

 is especially common in the Cilician Taurus, is the largest of these three species, 

 the rams generally standing about 2 feet 9 inches at the shoulder. The colour of 

 the upper parts of the body in the rams is russet-yellow, the fore portion of the 

 head being whitish, and the under-parts, insides of the limbs, and the whole of the 

 lower portions of the legs, as well as a streak on the buttocks, white. There is a 

 dark mark on the front of the fore-legs above the knee, and the fringe of long hair 

 on the lower part of the throat is also dark, as is the end of the tail. The horns 

 have a peculiar backward and inward curvature, so as nearly to meet behind the 

 neck, and as a rule they do not exceed 26 inches in length, but a single pair has 

 been recorded measuring upwards of 40 inches. The females have a characteristic 

 white saddle-mark on the back. 



In the Troodos mountains of Cyprus this species is represented by the 



