322 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



tufts of long hair about the knees, nor mane on the neck. 

 It may be an individual of mixed blood, such as the ancients 

 often allude to ; perhaps the Ophion of Pliny. 



The Musmon. (0. Musmon.) The ancients were ac- 

 quainted with this animal : Pliny notices the Musmon, 

 Musimon and Ophion. In Candia it is still said to be found. 

 The mountaineers of Sardinia and Corsica are well ac- 

 quainted with it, by the name of Mufro, and in former 

 ages it abounded in Spain, and, probably, in all the high 

 primitive chains of mountains in temperate Europe. If 

 one species of Ovis can make a direct claim to the proge- 

 nitorship of the domestic breeds more than another, it 

 would be the Musmon, and the last described variety of 

 Africa, which by the structure of its horns is more allied 

 to Musmon than to Ammon ; both having proved that 

 the intermixture with domestic sheep is readily accom- 

 plished, and the intermediate breed prolific. It is probable 

 that African sheep first peopled the south and west of Eu- 

 rope, perhaps as early as the Asiatic, which may have 

 spread themselves over Greece, Sicily, and the east of Italy ; 

 but a later period may be assigned to those which came 

 round the Black Sea into the valley of the Danube : the 

 northern nations of wooded Europe, could not maintain 

 them till a period comparatively recent. 



The Corsican Musmon, like the African animal, has the 

 horns shorter than the other Argalis, usually not exceeding 

 one and a half the length of the head, curved backwards, and 

 the points turned inwards. In general the colour of the 

 fur is a brownish or liver-coloured gray, with more or less 

 white upon the face and legs ; there is also a tuft of long 

 hair beneath the throat, and a darker streak along the 

 back and on the flanks. But they sometimes vary in colour, 

 being marked with large black spaces, particularly about 

 the neck, resembling, in this particular, the domestic breeds 

 both in Africa and India, which appear to be nearest the 



