102 MR, LYDEKKER ON AN ASIATIC WILD SHEEP. [Feb.3, 
29. ANCISTRODON BLOMHOFFII. astern Siberia, Mongolia, 
China, Hainan, Formosa, Japan, Loo Choos, Siam.—Called by 
the Japanese ‘‘mamushi,” “hami,” “ kuchibami,” “hiraguchi.” 
All synonymous terms for the “ beautifully marked variety.” 
30. LACHESIS OKINAVENSIS. Loo Choos.—Called by the J: apanese 
“habu.” 
31. LAcHEsSIS FLAVovIRIDIS. Loo Choos.—Also called “ habu” 
by the Japanese. 
32. LAcHESIS MUCROSQUAMATUS. Naga Hills, Assam; Formosa. 
33. LAcHESIS LUTEUS. Loo Choos. 
3. Note on the Wild Sheep of the Kopet-Dagh. 
By R. Lypexker. 
[ Received December 4, 1902. | 
(Text-figure 10.) 
Through the generosity of Mr. St. George Littledale the collec- 
tion of the British Museum has recently been enriched by a very 
fine skull, with the horns (text-fig. 10, p. 103), of a ram of the Wild 
Sheep of the Kopet-Dagh range, which forms the boundary between 
Turkestan and Northern Persia to the eastward of the Caucasus. 
Mr. Littledale also brought home the skin of the same animal, 
but it unfortunately was so badly injured by vermin that it had 
to be destroyed. ‘The skull is the finest of the series obtained 
during the trip. 
The Kopet-Dagh sheep was named Ovis arkal in 1857 by 
Blasius, and is evidently allied to the Urial, with the Punjab 
yace of which I have indeed proposed to identify it*. At that 
time I had, however, never seen an adult skull; and Mr. Little- 
dale’s specimen indicates the right of this sheep to rank as a 
distinct race of Urial. It will be remembered that the Punjab 
race of the Urial (O. vignet cycloceros), as exemplified at any rate 
by specimens from Peshawer and Afghanistan in the British 
Museum, differs from the typical O. vignei of Astor and Ladak 
by the much greater prominence of the two front angles of the 
horns, which are often raised into nodose beads, between which 
the front surface of the horn is depressed and carries bold and 
widely separated transverse ridges. 
In the Kopet-Dagh Urial this prominence of the front angles 
of the horns is still more pronounced, though the beading is 
somewhat less conspicuous. Moreover, the front surface of the 
horn is unusually broad and flattened, with the transverse 
1 * Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats,’ p. 173. 
