Dr. X. ScVfitzotl oil the Maiitiiuih of Turkestan. 217 



been dragged tliore by wolves, wliicli, ns well as the vultures, 

 feed on the Hesh and skeletons of the dead sheen. The vul- 

 tures only eat the tiesji on the skulls ; but the wolves gnaw off 

 the nasal jwrtions, where the bones are thiinier. Sometimes, 

 but not oitt'ii, eoniplt'te skulls are tound. 



These skulls also show when the breeding-season of the 

 animals commences. In June the skulls look old, and in 

 October still older; but in October I also found one skull 

 which had not yet become white, and was marked with 

 blood: consequently this is the time when the breeding-season 

 begins, which very likely lasts als<j through the month of 

 November. In October a specimen of 0. I\>/ii, killed by me, 

 had very large and full testes ; but 1 am sorry to say that, 

 because of tlie hard frost, 1 could not make a microscopical 

 examination of the semen. 



In Karatau I saw in June through a telescope a female O. 

 nujrimontana^ the only sheep that occurs there, with a young 

 one, which must have been born in spring; and consequently 

 the rutting-season takes place in the autumn. 



The above remarks apply to all the species of Turkestan 

 sheep which inhabit the mountain-ranges, with the exception 

 of wooded districts. 



I will now proceed to give more exact descriptions of the 

 new species of sheep inhabiting Turkestan. 



Ovis Karelini. 



I have named this species after tlie worthy exjjlorer of 

 Central Asia — who was also the first to obtain sjxicimens of 

 this sheep, in the Ala Tau, near Semiretehje, about 1840. 

 These specimens have, up to the present, been considered 

 identical with 0. arrjali. I separated it from the latter on 

 com])aring my two complete specimens, and three others, 

 which were brought by Karelin, with the true P]ast-8iberian 

 O. argali^ of which latter the Moscow University Museum 

 possesses one com[)lete specimen and three skulls. 



The three surfaces of the horn of 0. Karelini are convex, 

 the orbital surface not so mucli so, however, as the two others. 



The edges are rounded, particularly the fronto-nuchal one, 

 so much so that it can hardly be called an edge. Tlie frontal 

 and nuchal surfaces do not form an angle where they meet at 

 the ba.se, but run into one another in a curve ; but a little 

 above the skull the honis get their regular triangular shape. 

 The orbital surface of the hi:)rns is only once and a half as 

 wide as the line drawn from its centre towards the fronto- 

 nuchal edge ; and the nuchal siu-face is wider than the frontal 

 one, but not so wide as the orbital surface. The rising 



