BOVID^ 59 



or mountainous regions, preferably arid with occasional springs 

 or waterholes. I have seen tracks in small valleys but they do 

 not often come down on level ground. If not disturbed they do 

 not frequent exceptionally rough mountains, but when hunted 

 much they get into the roughest places they can find. 



Their food is principally "browse", i. e., leaves and twigs of 

 shrubs. In some of the desert mountains a very coarse perennial 

 grass known by the Mexican name of "galletta" grows, which 

 they eat. The contents O'f a stomach of a Bighorn which I killed 

 in the Providence Mountains in June consisted principally of 

 leaves, twigs and flowers of RJiamniis, Ephedra and Rhus, with 

 some unripe fruits of the Rhus, and a little grass. Bunch grass 

 was green and plentiful at the time there but evidently the Big- 

 horn preferred the coarser food. The Indians tell me that the 

 Bighorns eat the larger species of cacti when water is scarce. 



Bighorns vary in their drinking habits with locality and 

 season. In the desert mountains in summer they drink daily 

 if practicable, coming to water most often about the middle of 

 the afternoon, but sometimes in the forenoon. In cool weather 

 they drink less frequently, and even in summer those running in 

 cool mountains do not drink often. A small band running in 

 the Providence Mountains at 5,000 to 7,000 feet altitude in 1902 

 did not appear tO' go to water more than two or three times a 

 month. The spring was down in the hot foothills and inconven- 

 ient, while on the crest of the mountains the weather was cool 

 and feed abundant and green. 



Bighorns seem to be crepuscular and diurnal in habit, but 

 if disturbed often they feed some in the night. They appear to 

 lie down in the forenoon, sometimes soon after sunrise. In warm 

 localities the beds are pawed out in the shade of shrubs or rocks, 

 but in cool mountains they are made in open places commanding 

 a clear view around them. 



The voice is said to be similar to that of the domestic sheep, 

 but coarser. It is probably used but little. A Bighorn ewe lamb, 

 three or four weeks old, that I had alive a few days, bleated much 



