304 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



of the group inhabiting the African continent — is a 

 native of the Atlas and other mountain ranges of 

 North Africa ; its distribution extending from within 

 a short distance of the Atlantic sea-board to the 

 Egyptian Sudan. In the Atlas it is restricted to 

 the hot and dry slopes of the southern flank, which 

 overlook the Sahara desert. In such haunts, where 

 the rocks are for the most part reddish or yellowish, 

 the arui is rendered almost indistinguishable from 

 its surrounding by its rufous tawny coat. Water is 

 everywhere scarce, and the arui, according to native 

 report, have often to travel a long distance before 

 they can slake their thirst ; in accordance with this, 

 they are stated to seldom drink more than once 

 in four or five days. They keep strictly to the 

 open country, never entering the cedar-forests, and 

 frequent more precipitous ground than typical wild 

 sheep. As a rule, they are to be met with in small 

 parties of four or five ; the ewes produce one or 

 two lambs at a birth, after, it is said, a gestation of 

 about 160 days. 



The arui also inhabits the desert to a distance 

 of about 1000 miles south of Biskra; and this 

 desert form, which is probably identical with the 

 one inhabiting the Eastern Sudan, may be distinct 

 from the Atlas arui. If this prove to be the case, 

 the latter will have to be known as Amniotragus 

 lervia tragelaphus. 



In the large size of the horns of the females and 



