CHAPTER XIV 



ABERRANT WILD SHEEP 



Two species of wild sheep, the arui, udad, or Bar- 

 bary sheep of the mountains of northern Africa, and 

 the bharal or blue sheep of the inner Himalaya and 

 Tibet, differ so remarkably from all their kindred, 

 as they likewise do from one another, that they are 

 respectively referred by many naturalists to genera 

 by themselves, although by others they have been 

 included in the typical genus Ovis. As a middle 

 course, they have been regarded as representing 

 two separate subgeneric groups of that extensive 

 genus. In the features in which they differ from 

 the more typical sheep both the arui and the bharal 

 make an approximation towards the goats ; the 

 caprine features being perhaps more pronounced in 

 the latter than in the former. 



Both species exhibit that " perversion " in the 

 direction of the upper part of the horns of the rams 

 characterising those of the red sheep,' which re- 

 appears in the goat-like Pallas's tur, or so-called 

 Caucasian bharal, of the Eastern Caucasus. 



In the arui the suborbital face-glands are cer- 



' Vide supra, p. 17. 



301 



