318 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



nearly the same, but paler, and without the disk on the but- 

 tocks ; both have the face rather straight, the tail very 

 short, the eye-lashes whitish, the skin beneath the throat 

 lax, and covered with longer hair, and a close wool con- 

 cealed by the outer coat. 



The Argali inhabits the highest mountains of Central 

 Asia, the Caucasus, Kamschatka, and the elevated steppes 

 and plains of Siberia, &c. The males fight fiercely in the 

 manner of the Common Ram ; they breed twice in the year, 

 in spring and autumn, and produce one or two lambs at a 

 birth. These are at first covered with a gray fur, and if taken 

 they are easily domesticated ; but the adults remain always 

 intractable. They are strong and active, flying from the 

 least danger, always in a direction of the most inaccessible 

 ground, but their motion is from side to side, like that of the 

 Domestic Sheep, and stopping in their course to look at the 

 pursuer. The flesh is esteemed very savoury, and the skins, 

 now becoming more rare in Russia, fetch a good price on 

 the spot to be converted into articles of clothing. In the au- 

 tumn, when they descend from the mountains, they are 

 very fat, but in the spring they are lean, from want of 

 choice food, and from licking salt, before they again as- 

 cend to the sunny glens of the high mountains. 



The American Argali. (0. Pygargus.) This animal was 

 known in the time of Hernandez, by the name of Sheep of 

 California ; Venegas and Clavighero, afterwards noticed it, 

 and the Canadian fur traders have long been acquainted 

 with it by the name of Culblane ; but Mr. M'Gillivray after 

 his travels in the Rocky Mountains in 1800, first drew the 

 attention of Zoologists more particularly to the species, and 

 its spoils have since been transmitted to Philadelphia and 

 London. In size and form, it resembles the former, being 

 also about three feet high at the shoulder, and four feet six 

 inches in length, but the horns are still larger and more per- 

 fectly spiral, measuring above fifteen inches each at their 



