84 ME. R. LTDEKKER ON WILD SHEEP FROM [Juiie 3, 



The exact locality is the noith-west end of the Vei'khoyansk 

 Mountains, forming the watershed between the valleys of the 

 Yana and the Lena. The specimen which I exhibit this 

 evening (Plate YIII.) is, I am glad to say, to be presented to 

 the British Museum by Mr. Clifton. It is, I believe, the first 

 example of its kind ever brought to England. There are, indeed, 

 two heads of a white Bighorn Sheep in the possession of 

 Mr. Rothschild (which, by the kindness of their owner, I am 

 likewise enabled to exhibit this evening) said to be of Asiatic 

 origin. These heads were brought by tiadeis through Kamchatka, 

 and in ' Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats ' ^ I assigned one of them 

 to the Kamchatkan form of Bighorn. Subsequently, how^ever, 

 I obtained evidences that the Ka-mchatka-n Bighorn does not 

 turn white in winter, and accordingly pointed out " that the 

 identification was in all probability incorrect. I cannot identify 

 either of these heads with the specimen under consideration. 



The Wild Sheep of Northern Siberia appears to have been first 

 described by SevertzofF' in 1873, under the name of Ovis horealis. 

 His description, which is very brief and by no means satisfactoiy, 

 is in Russian, but a translation in German was given by the late 

 Prof. Peters' in 1876. The description is as f oIIom's : — "The 

 specimens of this sheep, which were given by Mr. Schmidt to the 

 Museum of the Academy of Sciences at Moscow, were obtained 

 from the mountains and highlands of the Pjasina [Piasina] and 

 Chatanga districts of Northern Siberia. They seem to me to 

 indicate a foi'm intermediate between 0. nwicola and 0. argcdi, 

 but nearer to the former, from which they ai-e doubtfully 

 specifically distinct, and with which they may be identical. 

 From 0. argcdi they difier by their smaller horns, inferior size, 

 and whitish belly." 



It was subsequently stated that the locality of the type speci- 

 mens is the mountains separating the valleys of the Nyjnaya and 

 Tunguska from those of the Pjasina and Chatanga. The Tun- 

 guska, it may be well to mention, is a tributary of the Yenesei, 

 but the Pjasina discharges into the Ai'ctic Ocean somewhat east 

 of the Yenesei in about long. 185" east. 



The travellers Dr. A. Bunge and Baron E. Toll ° identify with 

 Severtzofli''s 0. horealis, which is considered inseparable from 0. 

 canadensis, a sheep found in the Verkhoyansk Mountains, and 

 thence down the valley of the Lena to its mouth. 



This sheep is undoubtedly the same as the one obtained by 

 Mr. Talbot Clifton ; and if the former be rightly identified with 

 0. horealis (as is probably the case), the latter must likewise 

 belong to that foi-m. 



The first point to mention is that Mr. Clifton's specimen shows 

 no signs of affinity with the Argalis, but is in every respect a true 



' Page 224. 



" ' Great and Small Game of Europe, &c.,' p. 23. 



3 Trans. Soc. Moscow, vol. viii. art. 2, p. 153 (1873). 



4 Monatsber. Ak. Berlin, 1876, p. 180. 



5 See Beitrage Kennt. Russ. Reichs, ser. .3, vol. iii. p. 102 (1887). 



