1885.] ROCKY-MOUNTAIN BIGHORN. 679 



The Wild Sheep are so puzzling a group, and slight variations in 

 colour and horn are so common among individuals from the same 

 locality, that it is difficult sometimes to define different species. 

 Specimens from the extreme north of the Rocky Mountains differ, 

 however, so greatly from those procured in the United States, as to 

 deserve future specific distinction, unless specimens from inter- 

 mediate localities can be found to connect the two. 



All naturalists who have studied the Ovine group are aware of the 

 confusion that has been caused in discriminating species, partly 

 through want of accuracy in noting the exact localities whence speci- 

 mens have been procured, and partly by the impossibility of collecting 

 together for comparison a sufficient number of specimens. It was 

 Mr. Seebohm, I think, who once classified naturalists as "lumpers" 

 and "splitters." The Wild Sheep have suffered severely from both 

 classes. Buffou and Pennant mention the Wild Sheep of Corsica, 

 Sardinia, Tartary, Siberia, Kamtschatka, and California as varieties 

 of the Mouflon. Schreber, under the specific name of JEgoceros 

 argali, lumps up together the North-American, Siberian, and Thibetan 

 Wild Sheep. Even so late as 1871, Blyth, writing to the 'Field' 

 under the name of " Zoophilus," failed to distinguish between the 

 Rocky-Mountain species and the Kamtschatkan species, O. nivicola. 

 In the way of splitting, the Rocky-Mountain Bighorn, of which only 

 one species has been recognized, had no less than five specific names 

 given to it between 1803 and 1830. 



That there may be substantial grounds for separating the northern 

 Bighorn from the southern species is shown by the difficulties that 

 have been experienced by the British-Museum authorities in naming 

 the North-American specimens now in their possession. 



Among the stuffed specimens exposed to public inspection are two 

 from North America: the one from the Yellowstone River is labelled 

 canadensis, which is the correct specific name of the Rocky-Mountain 

 Sheep, supposing only one species to exist ; and the other, from Liard's 

 River, is labelled nivicola or the Alaskan Wild Sheep, though the 

 true O, nivicola is not found in America. In a corner of the same 

 case is a specimen of 0. nivicola from Kamtschatka without any name 

 on its label. There is also stowed away in one of the basement rooms 

 a stuffed specimen in bad preservation, labelled canadensis. This 

 is the specimen described and figured by Richardson in the ' Fauna 

 Boreali- American a,' and is identified by Mr. Nelson as belonging to 

 the new variety which he has named after Mr. Dall. It is of the 

 same type or race as the specimen from Liard's River, but is in its 

 summer coat, whUst Dr. Rae's specimen is in its spring or winter 

 coat. Comparison of these specimens will show how those from 

 Alaska and British North America came to be classed as 0. nivicola. 



In a paper published in the Society's ' Proceedings' for 1875 by 

 Sir V. Brooke and his brother on the large Wild Sheep of Asia, it 

 was pointed out that O. nivicola differs from the Bighorn in the 

 shortness of its face and its great proportionate breadth across the 

 orbits. There is another equally noticeable point of distinction in 

 the colour of the hind quarters. 



44* 



