MARCO POLO'S SHEEP 



{Ovis poll) 



A Sheep as big as a Donkey, with horns measuring a couple of 

 yards along their splendid spiral curves^ is an animal that cannot 

 very well escape notice, and so it is not surprising that it was 

 described by the great Venetian traveller Marco Polo, who met with 

 it when, in the thirteenth century, he traversed its home on the bleak 

 Pamir steppes, " the roof of the world," though it was not until seventy 

 years ago that actual specimens of the animal, in the form of skulls, 

 Were brought to England and the species duly named. Of recent years 

 this grand animal has been a good deal hunted, and is now fairly well 

 known, though it has never been exhibited in our Zoological Gardens 

 as yet. The ewe is a much less imposing animal than the ram, being 

 not only smaller, but, as is usual with wild Sheep, having quite short, 

 slightly curved, insignificant-looking horns. 



The coat is short, close, and very thick ; as in all wild Sheep — and 

 in most tame ones in some parts of the world — it is composed of 

 hair, not wool, the latter type of coat being the result of human 

 selection. The long tail found in many breeds of tame Sheep has 

 also no counterpart in this or most other wild species, which are 

 usually short-tailed. 



The coat of the great Sheep varies to a certain extent according 

 to season, being longer in winter, when also the male develops a ruff 

 of especially long white hair on the front of the neck, while the ewe's 

 throat becomes brown. 



Marco Polo's Sheep ranges from the Thian Shan Mountains to the 

 Oxus valley, and shows a certain amount of local variation, the 

 Thian Shan race not having such fine horns as the typical Pamir 

 form. Like wild Sheep generally, it does not so much frequent rocks 

 as open undulating ground; for these animals, like their domestic 



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