THE TURBARY OR BUNDNER SHEEP 151 



by the same writer that the suborbital pits in the 

 skulls of these Cretan turbary sheep ;are very 

 shallow, and may be absent ; and from this he finds 

 support for his theory that the turbary sheep is 

 derived from the North African arui, in which, as 

 already mentioned, they are absent. The presence 

 of such pits in the skulls of the modern, but now 

 extinct, representatives of the turbary sheep is 

 explained by a supposed crossing with Asiatic 

 breeds. 



This theory of an African origin of the turbary 

 sheep is, of course, rendered completely invalid if 

 there is any truth in Dr. Duerst's views, as indeed 

 it also is by the fact that the inhabitants of the 

 Pfahlbauten were an Asiatic people, as well as 

 by the aberrant character of the arui, as pointed 

 out by Messrs. Duerst and Gaillard in the passage 

 already cited. 



It may be added that in its long tail and in 

 the frequently small size of its horns the turbary 

 sheep is a much more specialised type than the 

 short-tailed breeds of the Isle of Man and Soa, 

 although it has been regarded as a primitive form. 



Another inference is that the mouflon believed 

 to have formerly inhabited Greece may have been 

 O. orientalis and not O. niusimon} 



Reverting to the Anau deposits of Turkestan, 

 it may be mentioned that the topmost layers yield 



^ Vide supra, p. 53. 



