374 DR. A. GtrjSTTHER ON THE 



The Wild Sheep oe the TJemi Islands. 

 By Dr. A. GtJNTHER, P.E.S., P.L.S. 



(Plate 22.) 



A CRANIUM in tolerably good condition with the skin and hairs 

 adhering to the face and forehead, with perfect horns, but with- 

 out lower jaw, was picked up on Koyun Daghi, the largest 

 island of the Urmi Archipelago. The head is that of an adult 

 ram. There is no other wild sheep (at least not in the very rich 

 collection of the Natural History Museum) to which this head 

 comes nearer, as regards size of cranium and form of the borns, 

 than the Cyprian Mouflon {Ovis opJtion). Yet there is a striking 

 difference in tbe sweep and direction of the horns ; but without 

 further information it would seem to me premature to introduce 

 this sheep as'^a distinct species. It certainly must appear very 

 singular that a sheep from a lacustrine island of "Western Persia 

 should be more nearly allied to the distant and local form from 

 Cyprus, than to the typical Ovis orientalis which is reported 

 from the Elburz and Armenian mountains * and other parts 

 of Asia Minor. 



Ovis ophion, var. urmiana. 

 I have no materials to demonstrate any craniological cha- 

 racters by which this form may differ from either O. orientalis 

 or O. ophion, but the size of the skull (and by inference of the 

 whole animal) may be conceived from the following measure- 

 ments : — 



millim. 

 Distance between end of intermaxillary and upper 



rim of occipital foramen 230 



Distance between end of intermaxillary and palatal 



notch 120 



Length of molar series 65 and 69 



Distance between the two series in front 15 



behind 50 



Distance between lower rims of orbits 125 



„ styloid processes 63 



G-reatest width of occipital condyles . . . . , '57 



=1= W. T. Blanford, ' Eastern Persia,' ii. p. 88 ; Danford & Alston, Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1880, p. 55. 



