1885.] ROCKY-MOUNTAIN BIGHORN. 683 



years later, he suppressed the name and returned to that of montuna, 

 which he also ascribes to Greoffroy, whose figure he again reproduces. 

 In 1827 Hamilton Smith gave the name oi pygargus to the Rocky - 

 Mountain Sheep. The accompanying figure is certainly of the 

 southern or heavy-horned species, but he gives no information about 

 the animal. In 1829 Douglas gave the name of californianus to 

 the Wild Sheep that inhabits "the subalpine region of Mount's 

 Wood, St. Helens, and Vancouver, but is more numerous in the 

 mountainous districts in the interior of California." He gives very 

 exact measurements, one of which assigns a length of eighteen inches 

 to the tail; but as he states that he never saw one alive, but founded 

 his species on one good skin seen " about the great falls of the 

 Columbia River," and as no species of Wild Sheep yet identified is 

 known to have a tail approaching to this length, the name cannot 

 stand. In the work on the Natural History of Central America now 

 in course of publication by Messrs. Godraau and Salvin, Mr. Alston 

 has restored Desmarest's name of cervina, on the ground that the 

 name of montana, which he assigns to Cuvier, was applied to the 

 Rocky-Mountain Goat before Cuvier wrote. There appears no 

 reason why the same specific name should not be used in both 

 genera ; but as Shaw's name of canadensis was puhlished long before 

 Cuvier wrote, and before there is any proof of the name moiitana 

 having been used by Geoffroy or by Schreber, it must have priority. 



The local name of Taye, which is sometimes given to museum 

 specimens, is taken from MacGillivray's original account, and is ap- 

 parently a misprint for Taje, which, according to Schott, in the U. S. 

 Mexican Boundary Report, is the name used for the Bighorn by 

 an Indian tribe in California. There appear to be no good reason 

 for retaining so purely local a name. " My-attic " and " Ema-ki-ca- 

 now " are also mentioned by MacGillivray as Indian names for the 

 Bighorn. 



The most important references to the Bighorn are as follows : — 



1803. Mountain Earn of North America, Mitchill, New York 

 Repository, p. 237 (fig-)- 



1803. Belier de Montaigne, E. Geoffroy de St.-Hilaire, Annales 

 du Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, tom. ii. p. 360 (fig.). 



1804. Ovis canadensis, Shaw, Naturalist's Miscellany, vol. xv. 



(%.)• ^ 



1817. O. montana, Cuvier, Regne Animal, tom. i. p. 267. 



1818. O. cervina, Desmarest, Nouveau Dictionnaire d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, vol. xxi. p. 5.t3. 



1820. O. montana, Desmarest, Mammalogie, p. 487 (fig-)- 



1827. O. pygargus, Hamilton Smith, Cuvier's Animal King- 

 dom (fig.). 



1829. O. californianus, Douglas, Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 

 332. 



1829. 0. montana, Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Americana (fig.). 



1836. Ber Amerikanische Argali, Schreber, Die Siiugthiere, vol. v. 

 p. 1367 (2 figs.). 



