l)r. N. Severtzoff on t/ic Mammals nf Turkestan. 209 



identitictl slice]) tVuiii Nortli Siln-ria, tVom tlie mountains 

 separating; the basin of the river Nyjnaja Tungusca, a tribu- 

 tary to the Jennissey, from the basins of the Ilatanga and 

 Piasina. Several perfect specimens were obtained from there 

 for the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences by 

 Mr. Scliini<lt's expedition. Accdrdinj; to the shajje of the 

 horns, it is rather close to 0. nivicola and (>. 7iahoor, IIod;;s., 

 from th(.' Himalayas, so much so that Blasius does not iind 

 any difference at all between the Himalayan and the American 

 horns (Bias. Siiugeth. Deutschl. p. 470), which reminds me of 

 the general origin of all the different species of sheep. 



2. (h-is ari/a//\ Pall., nmi Hla-J. 



The horns are thick, and rather rounded at the edges ; the 

 orbital surface is convex^ without any depression whatever. 

 The horns begin to diminish in the first third t>f their length ; 

 they are almost three times as long as the skull ; the frontal 

 surface is narrower than the nuchal surface, which last is the 

 case also with all the following species. The chords of the basal 

 and terminal curves are not parallel, the former being more 

 horizontal. The axil spiral of the horn would fit on an 

 inverted cylinder. The praimaxilla; do not articulate with 

 the luisals, from which the maxillary is separated by a little 

 bone. The hichri/mal is small and suhquadrate ; its anterior 

 edge forms a parallel line icifh the front edge ofi the malar. 



The head is Hat-topped, pyramid-shaped, stout and blunt. 

 The neck is maneless. The skin is reddish brown ; the throat, 

 breast, and belly are darker than the vertebral line or any of 

 the other parts of tlie back ; there is a white patch around the 

 tail, sharply dt fined from the body-colour, but without any darker 

 edge round it : this white colour ejctends doicn half of the 

 rump. In winter it gets very soft short hair under the long 

 rough coat. 



i'lie length of the animal from the tip of the nose to the 

 tail ranges up to 6 feet, the height at the shoulders to 34 feet, 

 the length of the honis from 39 to 42 inches. 



Obs. It is not yet known whether the sheej) called by this 

 name iidiabiting the low hills and the Siberian Kirgies stejipcs 

 (for instance the Karkalinsk, Arkatsk, and Aldgan-adirsk 

 steppes) belong to the present species. According to the 

 analogy of the distinction of Musimon arkal of Turcomania 

 from .1/. orientalis of the high mountains, and also of the 

 Karatau sheep from those inhabiting the Thian-Shan,it appears 

 to me that these Karkalinsk sheep will prove to form a sepa- 

 rate species. 



