254 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



Closer study of the original description will, how- 

 ever, show that the authors expressly stated that this 

 was based on a Cyprian specimen, and consequently 

 that Cyprus is the typical locality.' Owing to lack 

 of recognition of this fact the Cyprian mouflon was 

 described as a distinct species by Edward Blyth in 

 1840 under the name of O. ophion, and was for 

 many years after regarded as different from O. 

 orientalis, of which, as we have just seen, it is 

 really the type. It has also been called O. cyprica. 

 The second item of confusion relates to the 

 curvature of the horns. In the first of his articles 

 on the breeds of tame sheep, Dr. L. J. Fitzinger^ 

 stated that the red sheep differs from the European 

 mouflon by the right horn forming a right-handed, 

 instead of a left-handed spiral. As explained in the 

 third chapter, he not only determined the respective 

 directions of the spirals incorrectly, but he was 

 wrong in stating that the one spiral is right-handed 

 and the other left-handed. Both the mouflon and 

 the red sheep have a right-handed spiral in the 

 right horn, and vice versa; and the difference in 

 their direction is due to what is called a perversion 

 in the twist of the terminal portion. In consequence 

 of this the horns of the red sheep (pi. xi. fig. 2, and 

 pi. xix. fig. i) are naturally directed backwards behind 



• This has been pointed out by Dr. N. Nasonov in a memoir, in 

 Russian, on these sheep, published in Bull. Ac. Imp. Sci. Nat., St. 

 Petersbourg, 191 1, pp. 1267- 1296. 



• Sitzber. Ak. Wiss. Wien, vol. xxxviii. p. 156, 1859. 



