1841.] A Monograph of the species of Wild Sheep, 859 



a frontlet, I incline to recognize (though not without hesitation) 

 the Ovis sculptorum^ formerly described by me from a horn in 

 the Museum of the (London) Royal College of Surgeons, but as 

 the characters of that specimen, as I originally drew them up, have not 



are referred to under these names, two of which are confounded together by the latter 

 author. 



The Kooch-i-Koh of Sir Alexander Burnes' drawings now before me, refers to 

 my Ovis Fignei, and the same, I am enabled to state positively, is the " Kutchgar" 

 of Lieut. Wood, being also the " Koch" of the Sulimani range between India and 

 Afghanistan. I shall quote Lieut. Wood's description of it under the head of O. Fignei; 

 although this gentleman possessed the horns of both the Ovis Polii and O. Fignei, he 

 does not appear to have distinguished them, but probably considered the latter to be the 

 same species with the other, having horns incompletely developed. " A skeleton 

 of this animal," he observes, *' and several complete crania, were deposited, I believe, 

 at Loodiana," and the crania here alluded to, five in number, together with some loose 

 horns, are at present before me, and pertain to Ovis Fignei, Lieut. Wood confirms the 

 statement of Marco Polo, mentioning, that " we saw numbers of horns strewed about 

 in every direction, the spoils of the Kirghiz huntei*. Some of these (being probably 

 those of O. Polii) were of astonishingly large size. * * * The ends of these horns, pro- 

 jecting above the snow, often indicated the direction of the road, and wherever they were 

 heaped up in large quantities, there our escort recognised the site of a Kirghiz 

 summer encampment." This was at 14,400 feet above sea level. It is curious, (though by 

 no means a recent discovery,) that the Kirghizes shoe their Horses with, and make 

 stirrups from, the horns of these wild Sheep. " The shoes are nothing more than a se- 

 mi-circular piece of horn placed on the fore part of the hoof. When the Horse is in 

 constant work, it requires renewal at least once a week." 



The noble frontlet of Ovis PoliiinihQ Museum of the London Royal Asiatic Society 

 was labelled " Rass, or Roosh," but it obviously cannot be the *' Rass" stat- 

 ed by Lieut. Wood to have " straight spiral horns," and of which " the dun colour 

 has a reddish tinge;" this refers, in the opinion of my friend Mi\ Vigne, to the Mark- 

 iur of Kabul, or Rawacki of Little Tibet, a race of very large feral Goats allied to the 

 domestic animal, which is figured by Sir Alexander Burnes under the name o( Mark- 

 hor, (the locality not being specified,) and of which a skull and pair of loose horns have 

 been transmitted to the Asiatic Society from Loodiana, together with the before- 

 mentioned specimens collected by Sir Alexander Burnes. The Markbur, as I 

 was informed by Mr. Vigne, inhabits also the hills of Budukshan ; and I may 

 observe, that its massive horns vary much in amount of spiral flexure, from the 

 tense spirature of those of the Caffrarian Impoof, ( Boselaphus Oreas,) or straight 

 with a prominent ridge wound round them, to the corkscrew curvature of the 

 horns of the Koodoo, (Strepsiceros Koodoo,) which is their most usual form, 

 though sometimes they describe a still more open spiral than in that animal, 

 more as in the Addax, (Oryx Addax,) or at least such specimens of the lat- 

 ter as have come under my inspection. 



To recapitulate, I think it probable, firstly, that the Rass or Roosh of Pamir 

 will prove to refer properly to the Ovis Polii, and may mention that the appel- 

 lation Rasse is likewise bestowed in Java upon a small species of Civet, (the 

 Fiverra Rasse, Horsfield, or F. Indica, Is. Geoff, but not the F. Indica of 

 British authors;) 2ndly, that the Kooshgar, Kutchgar, Kooch-i-Koh, or KocJi, 

 applies exclusively to O. Fignei, which is also the Shd of Little Tibet, but 



