BREEDS OF ASIATIC HIGHLANDS 167 



Mr. Brian Hodgson was disposed to regard 

 the short-tailed domesticated sheep of the eastern 

 sub- Himalaya and Tibet as derived from the great 

 wild argali sheep {Ovzs ammon) of Central Asia ; 

 but another Indian naturalist, Mr. Edward Blyth, 

 who at one time believed^ that no living wild 

 species of sheep could be regarded as the ancestor 

 of any of the domesticated breeds, subsequently 

 came to the conclusion that the urial or shapo 

 {O. vignei), whose range extends from Turkestan 

 and the Punjab to the heart of Ladak, is probably 

 the progenitor of the Barwal fighting sheep of 

 Tibet.^ This view seems to possess considerable 

 probability of being true ; the Roman nose and 

 the white woolly fleece of the Barwal being, of 

 course, features due to the effects of domestication. 



This derivation of the Barwal, and doubtless 

 therefore of the allied Hunia from the wild urial, 

 accords well with Dr. Duerst's view as to the 

 origin of the turbary sheep (chap, vii.) from the 

 western race of the same wild species. If both 

 views be true, it follows that some at least of the 

 domesticated sheep of Europe are more or less 

 closely related to their tame short-tailed Himalayan 

 and Tibetan representatives. 



' Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vii. p. 261, 1841 ; see also Darwin, 

 Animals and Plants under Domestication, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 97. 



' See Jerdon, The Mammals of India, 2nd ed., p. 300, London, 

 1874- 



