526 ON ASIATIC SHEEP. [June 15, 
z. Skull and horns in East-Indian Museum, presented by Mr. 
Hodgson. The orbital surface slightly convex at base, but becomes 
gradually flat ; frontal surface slightly convex ; the nuchal surface 
convex. The fronto-nuchal and nuchal edges strongly marked; the 
fronto-orbital edge rounded. Terminal axis directed upwards, out- 
wards, and forwards. 
Conelusion.—M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, in his ‘ Recherches 
pour servir 4’ Histoire Naturelle,’ has indicated the probability of the 
Himalayas having been the birthplace of the Caprine Antelopes ; the 
same conclusion has suggested itself to our minds with reference to 
the Argali in studying their present distribution and differentiation. 
Taking the outlying forms of the group as regards geographical 
distribution, we find that we are led, either through intermediate or 
allied forms, to the great mountain-chain which forms the water- 
shed between the Indian region and Central Asia. Ovis poli of the 
Pamir, separated from Ovis hodgsoni of Thibet by the impassable 
glacier system of the Karakorum, which stretches over three degrees 
of longitude, from Hunza Nagar on the west to the Karakorum Pass 
on the east, is connected with that species by species of intermediate 
characteristics, which are distributed over intermediate ranges. The 
succession would be as follows :—Ovis poli, Pamir; Ovis karelini, 
Thian Shan as far eastward as Tengri Khan; Ovis ammon, the Altai 
from Tengri Khan as far as the Sea of Baikal on the east, and then 
southward over the great ranges at the sources of the Hoang-ho and 
Yang-se-kiang, its exact range in this latter direction being as yet 
very imperfectly known ; Ovts hodgsoni, Nepaul and Little Thibet. 
With reference to the three imperfectly known species, Ovis brooke, 
Ovis heinsi, and Ovis nigrimontana, nothing at present can be 
conjectured. Ovis nivicola of the Stanovoi Mountains and Ovis 
montana of North America, the two most isolated forms as to 
distribution, possess characters in common in which they differ 
markedly from all the other species; and this fact, the facts of 
peculiarity of form and isolation of distribution being found side by 
side, appears to strengthen the probability of the hypothesis that 
these two species are the offshoots of the group whose early home 
and birthplace was in the Himalayas. The probability of this 
hypothesis is also strengthened by its applicability to the differen- 
tiation and distribution of the smaller forms of Sheep. Ovis musimon 
of Corsica and Sardinia, and Ovis ophion of Cyprus, are undoubtedly 
very closely allied to Ovts ymelini (= Ovis orientalis) of Asia Minor, 
and appear to us to be nothing but insular derivatives of that species. 
Ovis gmelini, on its part, so closely resembles Ovis vignei of Ladak 
that the horns of the two species cannot be distinguished apart. 
The exact distribution of this form is not perfectly known; but we 
possess a very fine specimen from Ararat, and Mr. Blanford’s col- 
lection contained a male specimen from the Elburz Mountains, south 
of the Caspian Sea. Lastly, the sharply triangular-horned Sheep, 
of which Ovis cycloceros is the type, are distributed from the moun- 
tains of Southern Persia and Beloochistan, through the Sulimani 
and Salt ranges, as far north as Thibet; and we possess specimens 
from these different ranges. 
