194 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



although, if entitled to a technical name at all, it 

 should be known as O. aries steatopyga. 



This sheep, of which there are several local 

 breeds or sub-breeds, is an Asiatic type, of which 

 the range extends from the Black Sea and the con- 

 fines of Europe throughout Central Asia and the 

 greater part of China and Siberia. Here enormous 

 flocks are kept by nomad Kirghiz, Kalmuks, and 

 Mongols, while in Siberia it is largely bred by 

 the Russians. In China it appears to be almost the 

 only indigenous domesticated breed of sheep. The 

 enormous flocks of sheep kept in the warmer parts of 

 Central Asia consist chiefly of the fat-rumped breeds ; 

 and their abundance is testified by the fact that many 

 of the flocks comprise something like from 10,000 

 to 15,000 head. In many districts, however, the 

 breed is not pure, but has been crossed with sheep 

 of other kinds, so that there is great variation in 

 the amount of fat on the rump and in the length of 

 the tail. 



The typical representative of the group is the 

 Tatarian breed, of which the distributional area 

 extends from the Volga to the Irtish and the Altai 

 range, that is to say, from the Kirghiz steppes to 

 southern Siberia. It is rather a large sheep, with 

 a flat forehead, slightly convex chaffron, the lower 

 jaw shorter than the upper, and moderately long, 

 pendent ears. Although the ewes are nearly al- 

 ways polled, the rams usually carry horns, of which 



