1841.] A Monograph of the species of Wild Sheep. 883 



the tame Sheep has descended from the Argali of Siberia, or the 

 Moufflon of Corsica ; and now that so many more indisputably distinct 

 wild species have been added to the catalogue of this genus, it is 

 probable that we are still far from having ascertained the com- 

 plete existing number ; but that several more yet remain to be 

 discovered upon the lofty table-lands and snowy mountains of middle 

 Asia, from the Caucasus and Taurus to the Altai, and among them, 

 it is very probable, some much more nearly allied to the domestic 

 races than any at present known. 



The whole of the foregoing animals appertain to my subgeneric 

 group Ovisy as distinguished from Ammotragus, which latter is cha- 

 racterized by the absence of suborbital sinuses, like the Goats, but 

 differs from the latter by possessing interdigital fossse, as in other 

 Sheep. This difference between the Goats and Sheep appears to 

 have been first noticed by Pallas, and has since been descanted upon 

 by Professor Gene in vol. xxxvii. of the ' Memorie della Reale Ac- 

 cademia delle Scienze di Torino.' The fact of such a diversity in 

 genera so nearly allied in habitat as the Goats and Sheep, renders 

 the problem of the utility of the structure in question somewhat 

 difficult of solution. The species upon which I found the subgenus 

 Ammotragus, has decidedly an Ovine, rather than a Caprine, aspect, 

 when viewed alive ; the male emits no stench, as in the Goats ; 

 the bleat is precisely that of Ovis ; and the animal butts like a 

 Ram, and not like a Goat. Unlike the other species of admitted 

 wild Sheep, as well as the long-horned or true wild Goats, it has 

 a concave chaffron, and no markings on the face and limbs : its tail 

 is rather long, which is the case in no species of Capra, and is also re- 

 markable for being tufted at the extremity. The indigenous habitat, 

 North Africa, is a further peculiarity in the genus in which it is here 

 placed, though two species of wild Goats respectively inhabit Upper 

 Egypt, and the snowy heights of Abyssinia. 



15. O. Tragelaphus, Pallas, the African Goat-sheep. — This animal 

 appears to vary considerably in size, some exceeding a Fallow Deer 

 in stature, while others are much smaller. It has no beard on the 

 chin, like the true Goats, but is remarkable for the quantity of long 

 hanging hair in front of the neck, and on the upper part of the 

 fore limbs, the former attaining in fine males to about a foot in length. 



