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



from the Caucasian C. jEgagrus ; and as in my former paper I sug- 

 gested the probability that a wild Sheep more nearly resembling the 

 domestic races than any hitherto discovered, would yet occur some- 

 "where in the vicinity of the Caucasus, it now appears that such an 

 animal does exist in Central Persia, as noticed in my description of 

 O. Gmelini : nor should it be forgotten, that Hector Boetius mentions 

 a wild breed in the island of St. Kilda, larger than the biggest Goat, 

 with tail hanging to the ground, and horns longer and as bulky as 

 those of an ox.* Pennant remarks upon this subject, that such an 

 animal is figured on a bas-relief taken out of the wall of Antoninus, 

 near Glasgow. 



Of all the wild species of true Ovis that have been here described, 

 the Rass of Pamir appoaches nearest to O. Aries in the character of 

 its horns, though differing in one particular besides size, that has 

 been pointed out, namely, that the two front angles are about equally 

 developed, whereas in O. Aries, as in the Moufflon, the inner angle 

 is more acute to near the base. Some experience in the deduction 

 of the specific characters of Sheep horns enables me to state with 

 confidence, that the character of the long-tailed domestic breeds 

 of Europe, and also of most other breeds, is intermediate to that 

 of the Rass and that of the Moufflon, combining the flexure and 

 the prolongation of the former with the section of the latter, but 

 becoming proportionally broader at the base than in either ; more 

 as in the Argalis of Siberia, Kamtschatka, and North America. That 

 O. Aries is totally distinct from all, I have been long perfectly satis- 

 fied, and examination of the Rass in particular has strongly confirmed 

 me in this opinion. I think it likely, however, that more than one 

 wild species have commingled to form the numerous domestic races, 

 though certainly not any that have been described in this paper. 

 It is not very long since the question was habitually discussed, whether 



* Two crania of Sheep, apparently male and female, from the Irish peat, in the 

 possession of the Earl of Enniskillen, and exhibited sometime ago at a meeting of 

 the Geological Society, are probably of this race. 



Here I may mention, that among the numerous valuable fossil remains from the 

 Si valik deposits, presented to the Asiatic Society by Colonel Colvin, (as noticed in 

 the Journal of the Society, vol. v. p. 183), 1 have determined a large fossil Sheep 

 (allied to, if not identical with the Argali), a fossil Ibex, which I shall take an early 

 opportunity of figuring and describing. — E. B. 



