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



which shew the more usual [?] slight spirature are 26 inches long, having 

 their widest portion 14 inches apart, and the tips as much as 12 inches : 

 this pair shews seven years of growth, and their development was evi- 

 dently completed, though they are only 7 inches in girth at base. The 

 female has seldom any horns, which, when they exist, are ordinarily 

 about 2 inches long. 



The character of the horn of the Moufflon is nearly the same as that 

 of the domestic Ram, only that it is never so much prolonged, nor in- 

 deed to more than two-thirds of a circle : the inner front edge is acute 

 to near the base, where the outer one approaches to an equality with 

 it ; the first half being thus unequally triangular, and the remainder 

 much compressed, with strongly marked rugae, and having the inner 

 surface of the horn concave. It has always appeared to me, however, 

 that the specifical distinctness of the Moufflon is very obvious, and I 

 doubt whether it has contributed at all to the origin of any tame race. 

 That it interbreeds freely with the latter, under circumstances of re- 

 straint, is well known ; but we have no information of hybrids, of Um- 

 briy as they are called, being ever raised from wild Moufflons, though 

 the flocks of the latter will occasionally graze in the same pasture 

 with domestic Sheep, and all but mingle among them. The male of 

 this animal is denominated in Corsica Mufro, and the female Mufray 

 from which Buffon, as is well known, formed the word * Moufflon ;* 

 and in Sardinia the male is called Murvoni, and the female Murvay 

 though it is not unusual to hear the peasants style both indiscriminate- 

 ly Mujion, which, (as Mr. Smyth remarks in his description of that 

 island,) is a palpable corruption of the Greek Ophion. It is some- 

 times stated, but I do not know upon what authority, that a few of 

 these animals are still found upron the mountains of Murcia.* 



* I am not aware that the winter dress of the Moufflon has ever been described. 

 In summer the coat presents a smooth surface, with the hair in front of the neck 

 but moderately elongated, and lying close, though projecting so as to produce 

 an obtuse angular outline opposite the lower part of the neck, where it is longest. 

 The general colour is bright rufous brown, with a triangular white saddle-like 

 mark on each side; the head is dusky, with a white muzzle, and darker chafFron; 

 the belly and limbs below the mid-joint are also white, with generally dark mark- 

 ings in front of the latter, more or less developed ; and there is a conspicuous white 

 disk surrounding the tail, but not ascending above it (as in the Argali ;) the lengthen- 

 ed hair in front of the neck is black, as also a lateral band bordering the white belly, 

 together with the outside and inside of the upper half of the fourimbs, the tail, and 



