872 A Monograph of the species of Wild Sheep. [No. 119. 



responds to the tuft of O. Tragelaphus ; tail small, and very slender : 

 horns of the male subtrigonal, compressed, and very deep, with strong- 

 ly marked angles and cross striae, diverging backwards, with but 

 a slight arcuation to near the tips, which incline inwards. As regards 

 the flexure alone, but not the character of the horn, which is allied to 

 that of the common Ram, this handsome species links the Moufflon 

 group with the Nahoor and Burrhel group. 



Length nearly 5 feet from nose to tail ; the tail 4 inches : from nose 

 to base of horn 8 inches ; and ears 3^ inches. Horns (about full 

 grown, or nearly so,) 20 inches over the curvature, 10 round at base, 4 

 deep at base inside, their widest portion 2 feet apart, and tips 

 21 inches, with a span of 13^ inches from base to tip inside; their 

 colour pale. Around the eye and muzzle this species is whitish ; 

 the chaffron and front of the limbs are more or less tinged with 

 dusky, and its coat is rather harsh, and fades considerably in brightness 

 before it is shed. Female generally similar, but smaller, with no black 

 down the front of the neck, and in the observed instances horn- 

 less. The lengthened black hair of the male is only 1 inch long, and 

 that composing the tuft on the fore-limbs is so disposed that the latter 

 is white in the centre, flanked with blackish. 



According to M. Gmelin, this species is found only on the highest 

 mountains of Persia. Its rutting season takes place in Septem- 

 ber, and lasts a month ; and the female yeans in March, producing 

 two or three lambs at a time : the males, he informs us, are very 

 quarrelsome amongst each other ; insomuch that he had been at 

 one place where the ground was completely strewed with horns 

 that had been knocked off in their contests ; so that if any variation in 

 the flexure of these horns had been observable, this industrious natura- 

 list would doubtless have remarked it. Sir John McNeill informed me, 

 that " it appears to be the common species of the mountains of 

 Armenia ; occurring likewise on the north-west of Persia :" but 

 the wild Sheep of the central parts of Persia is evidently dis- 

 tinct,* *' having horns much more resembling those of the domestic 

 Ram, being spiral, and completing more than one spiral circle— 

 I think I am not mistaken in supposing," continues Sir John, " that I 



* As also that of the eastern districts, which appears to be O. Vignei. — E. B. 



