258 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



quite different view is taken by Dr. Nasonov,^ who 

 regards the Urmian sheep as a distinct species (O. 

 urmiana), with the Elburz and Ispahan representa- 

 tives of the red sheep as local races. The char- 

 acters on which Dr. Nasonov relies are not, how- 

 ever, of specific value, and all these sheep may 

 therefore be regarded as local forms of O. orientalis. 

 As regards the Urmian red sheep {O. orientalis 

 urmiana) all that can be stated here — in the ab- 

 sence of specimens in this country for comparison 

 — is that the horns, according to the figure given 

 by Dr. Nasonov,'' are bent sharply downwards, with 

 very little backward inclination, so that their tips 

 project far below the plane of the upper cheek-teeth, 

 instead of being practically continuous with the same. 

 Probably there is a well-developed throat-ruff in the 

 winter coat, like that of the next race. 



In the year 1876 Dr. W. T. Blanford ' pointed 

 out that the wild sheep inhabiting the southern flank 

 of the Elburz Mountains, to the north of Tehran, was 

 O. orientalis (or, as he called it, O. gmelini). This 

 was confirmed by a series of heads obtained about 

 1904 at an elevation of some 10,000 ft. in that 

 range, one of which is now in the British Museum 

 (Natural History), by the Hon. W. Erskine. To 

 this sheep I gave the name O. gmelini erskinei,* a 



> Op. cit., p. 1081. 



' op. cit., p. 1283, fig. 4. 



• Eastern Persia, vol. ii. p. 87, London, 1876. 



* The Field, vol. civ. p. 1 031, 1904. 



