THE MOUNTAIN -SHEEP 



107 



Park received, as a gift from Mr. William C. Whit- 

 ney, a female Musk-Ox twenty-one months old, 

 captured on the Barren Grounds north of Great 

 Bear Lake, about Latitude 69°. This specimen 

 died of acute pneumonia on August 16, 1902. 



In September, 1902, a very small female Musk- 

 Ox calf, captured by Commander Robert E. 

 Peary, at Fort Conger (Latitude 81°), was re- 

 ceived in the New York Zoological Park, as a gift 

 from the Peary Arctic Club. It died in October. 



In 1903 (July) five Musk-Ox calves, one male 

 and four females, arrived at Tromsoe, Norway, 

 from Greenland, and were offered for sale to zoo- 

 logical gardens generally. 



. The first specimen exhibited in the New York 

 Zoological Park, in 1902, was captured in March, 

 1901, thirty miles from the Arctic Ocean, directly 

 north of Great Bear Lake, by a party of Eskimo 

 hunters and whalers sent by Captain H. H. Bod- 

 fish, from the steam whaler Beluga. Its price, 

 delivered in New York in good health, was $1,600. 

 When two years old it stood 3 feet 2 inches high 

 at the shoulders, and was 4 feet 10 inches in 

 length. Its food was clover hay, raw carrots or 

 potatoes, a little green grass when in season, and 

 occasionally a few apples. 



The Mountain Sheep. 



High on the mountain's frowning crest, 



Where lines of rugged cliff stand forth, 

 Where Nature bravely bares her breast 



To snowy whirlwinds from the north; 

 High in the clouds and mountain storms, 



Where first the autumn snows appear, 

 Where last the breath of springtime warms, 



— There dwells my gallant mountaineer. 



And truly he is a gallant mountaineer. Wher- 

 ever found, the mountain sheep is a fine, sturdy, 

 animal, keen-eyed, bold, active and strong. It 

 fears no storm, and defies all enemies save man 

 and domestic sheep. From the former it re- 

 ceives bullets, from the latter, disease. Whether , 

 its home is the highest crags of the saw-tooth 

 ranges, the boldest rim-rock of the mountain 

 plateaus, or the most rugged "bad-lands," it is 

 always found amid the scenery that is grandest 

 and most inspiring. 



In summer, its favorite pastures are the tree- 

 less slopes above timber-fine, where, on our 

 northern mountains, grasses and wild flowers 



grow in astonishing profusion. When the raging 

 storms and deep snows of winter drive the elk 

 and deer down into the valleys for shelter and 

 food, the mountain sheep makes no perceptible 

 change in altitude. 



All the year round, this animal is well fed, and 

 its savory flesh invites constant pursuit by the 

 mountain lion, and by hunters both white and 

 red. The massive, curving horns and hand- 

 some head of the adult ram, taken amid grand 

 mountain scenery, with much difficulty and no 

 little danger, constitute, in my judgment, one of 

 the finest trophies that a true sportsman can win. 

 But it must be clean, and not haunted by the 

 ghosts of slaughtered ewes and lambs! One 

 of the greatest days of my life was that on 

 which I pursued and killed, alone, amid the 

 grandeur of the Shoshone Mountains, my flrst 

 big mountain ram. It was then that I learned 

 how much a mountain sheep needs to be seen 

 in its native cloudland in order to be fully appre- 

 ciated. It is an animal for which my admira- 

 tion is as boundless as the glories of its moun- 

 tain home. 



The mountain sheep is a bold and even reck- 

 less climber. It is robust and strong on its legs, 

 yet active withal, and capable of feats of en- 

 durance that really are astonishing. It can- 

 not, and never did, "leap from a height, and 

 alight upon its horns," — save by some neck- 

 breaking accident. When pursued it can, how- 

 ever, dash down an appalling declivity, touching 

 here and there, and land in safety, when to the 

 observer it seems certain to be dashed to death. 



The young are born in May or June, above 

 timber-line if possible, among the most danger- 

 ous and inaccessible crags .and precipices that 

 the mother can find. Her idea is to have her 

 offspring begin its Ufe in places so steep and 

 dangerous that a very slight effort on its part will 

 suffice to keep it beyond the reach of foes. The 

 lamb's most dangerous enemy is the eagle, 

 against which the mother successfully guards it. 



Except the burrhel and aoudad, any adult 

 mountain sheep, from either the Old World or 

 the New, can readily be recognized by its mas- 

 sive, round-curving horns, which, when seen 

 in profile, describe from one-half to three-fourths 

 of a circle, or more. No wild animals other than 

 wild sheep have circling horns. The largest spe- 

 cies of wild sheep are found in Asia, and are 



