516 The wild Sheep of Afghanistan. 



is brown. In all other parts of the animal's body the hair is 

 stiff, and uniformly short and close lying during the summer, 

 at which season also the colours are the palest ; in winter 

 the coat is coarser and less smooth, and of a darker shade 

 of brown, having beneath it a fine soft short fleece, which, as 

 in the Goats, is displaced in spring. 



The beard in full grown individuals is long, thick, and in- 

 terspersed with white or grey hairs ; the commencement 

 of it beneath the articulation of the jaws turning white with 

 age, as does also the tail, and the upper parts generally 

 become interspersed with the same colour. 



The remarkable fringe along the throat is strikingly con- 

 trasted with the uniform colour of the body, and at once 

 furnishes a well defined line of distinction between this, and 

 every other known species. The horns when mature, attain 

 to a length of 2 feet 6 inches ; they are curved strongly from 

 the base, laterally, posteriorly, downwards, and again up- 

 wards, forming nearly a circle ; the internal diameter of 

 which would be about 8 inches and a half; and the external 

 diameter over all, 11| inches. 



The horns may be termed semi-spiral, the tips alone in 

 mature specimens, taking a slightly forward turn. 



The form is triangular ; they are strongly wrinkled, and 

 the annual markings of increase are prominent ; deeply 

 furrowed on the anterior surface. The base of the triangle 

 forms the anterior side of the horn, which is rather more 

 than three inches in breadth at the base ; the sides are 

 equal, being three inches and three quarters in breadth, and 

 'giving altogether a basal circumference of about 10| inches 

 to a horn of two feet one inch in length. In older specimens 



it is more. 



The profile is either not at all, or but very triflingly 

 arched ; the muzzle clothed, and there is a moderate sized 

 lachrymal sinus, which appears to secrete, or at all events 

 contains, a thick gummy substance, of good consistency, and 



