1847.] Further Notice of the Species of Wild Sheep. 36 1 



9. O. Gmelini, nobis. Described from very fine specimens of the 

 male, female, and young ; and identified with a species long ago rudely 

 figured by the younger Gmelin, and the horn by Pallas ; and Gmelin's 

 description of the habits quoted, with further original information. 

 Head figured in Taylor's plate, No. 8. 



10. O. Vignei, nobis. Described from a coloured figure taken from 

 life, and from two pairs of horns, the distinctness of which from those 

 of all the other species is most obvious : vide Taylor's plate, fig. 9. A 

 skin of this animal was described by Pennant as the " Bearded Sheep," 

 but was confounded by him with O. tragelaphus (vide X, 877) ; and 

 there is a brief notice and very passible figure of the species, taken 

 from an animal killed in the vicinity of Persepolis, in Lieutenant Al- 

 exander's 'Travels from India to England,' &c. (1827.) It again 

 appears as the " Wild Sheep of the Hindu Koosh," described by Capt. 

 Hay, J. A. S. IX, 440 ; and as Ovis cycloceros, Hutton, ' Calcutta 

 Journal of Natural History,' II, 514, and pi. XII, being again noticed 

 by the latter gentleman in J. A. S. XV, 152. It may be observed that 

 Capt. Hay remarks this species to differ from O. tragelaphus "in 

 having a lachrymary sinus ;" and Capt. Hutton also describes " a 

 moderate-sized lachrymal sinus, which appears to secrete, or at all 

 events contains, a thick gummy substance, of good consistency, and of 

 a dull greyish colour. The Afghan and Belooche hunters," he adds, 

 " more especially the latter, make use of this gum, by spreading it over 

 the pans of their matchlocks, to prevent the damp from injuring the 

 priming." We may, therefore, rest satisfied of its existence in this 

 species, which is nevertheless most closely allied to the next.* 



* In a catalogue of Mr. Hodgson's collection presented to the British Museum, 

 prepared by Mr. J. E. Gray, who has obligingly presented me with a copy of it, just 

 received, I find 0. Vignei, Blyth, set down as a synonyme of 0. ammonoides, Hodgson, 

 and 0. Hodgsonii, nobis, also cited, either of which names has the advantage of priority 

 over that of ammonoides, supposing the latter to refer to a species distinct from O. amnion : 

 but Mr. Gray might as well identify O. musimon or 0. tragelaphus with 0. ammonoides, 

 and reduce all the wild species of Ovis to one, as bring together two such widely 

 different species as he has here done. He might just as well unite Cervus capreolus with 

 C. elaphus or C. tar and us ! 



So, in his synonymes of Presbytis entellus, he not only erroneously refers Pr. schista- 

 ceus, Hodgson, to this Bengal animal, but the much more different Pr. hypoleucos, nobis, 

 peculiar to Malabar and Travancore, and which Mr. Martin introduced as a variety of 



