THE' SHEEP. 



hi 



ground. This appendage begins with the 

 beard, and is particularly well developed on 

 the breast and fore-feet, and it gives to the 

 animal a peculiar appearance. In the female 

 this hair is considerably shorter, and reaches 

 only to the knee. The tail is pretty long, 

 and carries a long tuft of hair at the end, the 



hairs being set very thick on both sides. 

 The colour of the coarse and shaggy fleece 

 is a bright reddish yellow, and admirably 

 adapted to the rocks, in the midst of which 

 it lives in small herds. The ami has been 

 brought to Europe, where it propagates itself 

 very readily in zoological gardens. The old 



Fig. 187. — The Rocky Mountain 



males, however, become very ill-tempered, 

 and often attack with fury some part of their 

 cage, which they try to break through by 

 butting with their horns. 



The Rocky Mountain Sheep, the Big-horn 

 of the Americans [Ovis montana), fig. 187, 

 attains even a greater size than the ami. 

 The body is more slender, the legs are longer 

 and thicker, the profile of the forehead is 

 likewise straight, as in the latter animal; but 

 the horns of the male are thicker and very 

 broad in front; they have more of a spiral 

 twist than in the ami, and end in blunt points 

 directed outwards. The rings on the horns 

 are very close-set. The horns of the female, 

 however, resemble those of an ordinary goat. 

 An adult male may attain the weight of nearly 



Sheep or Big-horn [Ovis montana). 



four hundred pounds. The hair is short, 

 erect, and soft; its usual colour a grayish- 

 brown, darker on the back. The under sur- 

 face, the inner side of the legs, and a patch 

 on the hinder quarters are white; the tail is 

 short, and ends in a blackish point or tuft of 

 hair. The big-horn climbs and leaps in the 

 most wonderful manner. It inhabits the 

 desert tracts on the western slopes of the 

 Rocky Mountains between the 40th and 68th 

 degrees of northern latitude. A living speci- 

 men has never been obtained. A mouflon 

 belonging to Kamchatka, the Kurile and 

 Aleutian Islands (O. nivalis) has been de- 

 scribed, but it is probably only a slightly 

 different variety of the big-horn. 



The Kashkar of the Kirghiz {Ovis Polii), 



