BOVID.E 357 
We thus find that Sheep are essentially inhabitants of high 
mountainous parts of the world, for dwelling among which their 
wonderful powers of climbing and leaping give them special 
advantages. No species frequent by choice either level deserts, 
open plains, dense forests, or swamps. By far the greater number 
of species are inhabitants of the continent of Asia, one extending 
into North America, one into Southern Europe, and one into North 
Africa. No wild Sheep exist in any other part of the world, 
unless the so-called Musk-Ox of the Arctic regions, the nearest 
existing ally to the true Sheep, may be considered as one. Geo- 
logically speaking, Sheep appear to be very modern animals, or 
perhaps it would be safer to say that no remains that can be with 
certainty referred to the genus have been met with in the hitherto 
explored true Tertiary beds, which have yielded such abundant 
modifications of Antelopes and Deer. They are generally con- 
sidered not to be indigenous in the British Isles, but to have been 
introduced by man from the East in prehistoric times. A fossil 
Sheep (Oris savigni), apparently allied to the Argali, has, however, 
been deseribed from the so-called Forest-bed of the Norfolk coast. 
The Sheep was a domestic animal in Asia and Europe betore 
the dawn of history, though quite unknown as such in the New 
World until after the Spanish conquest. It has now been intro- 
duced by man into almost all parts of the world where settled agri- 
cultural operations are carried on, but flourishes especially in the 
temperate regions of both hemispheres. Whether our well-known 
and useful animal is derived from any one of the existing wild 
species, or from the crossing of several, or from some now extinct 
species, is quite a matter of conjecture. The variations of external 
characters seen in the different domestic breeds are very great. 
They are chiefly manifested in the form and number of the horns, 
which may be increased from the normal two to four or even eight, 
or may be altogether absent in the female alone, or in both sexes ; 
in the form and length of the ears, which often hang pendent by 
the side of the head: in the peculiar elevation or arching of the 
nasal bones in some Eastern races; in the length of the tail, and 
the development of great masses of fat at each side of its root, or 
in the tail itself; and in the colour and quality of the fleece. 
Ovibos1—This genus is generally considered to be a connecting 
link between the Caprine and Bovine sections, but should rather 
be regarded as an aberrant type of the former. Horns of adult 
male rounded, smooth, and closely approximated at their bases, 
where they are depressed and rugose ; curving downwards, and 
then upwards and forwards. Muzzle eaprine; no suborbital gland, 
no lachrymal fossa or fissure in skull ; orbits tubular: a large narial 
aperture and very short nasals; premaxille not reaching nasals. 
1 De Blainville, Bull. See. PAP. 1816, p. 78. 
