146 DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF ARGALI SHEEP 



They seem to be affected by height. I more than once 

 saw them, when going at full speed uphill, open their mouth 

 as if in want of breath. They like to stop from time to time. 



As a rule they dislike snow and are very cautious when 

 in deep new snow. 



They feed early in the morning and keep moving about 

 till ten or eleven o'clock in the day; then they lie down, 

 sometime on the same spot, or oftener they go up some bare 

 hill, where they scratch the ground and make a sort of big 

 "form." I did not notice that they were a.t all fond of lying 

 on the snows. 



After keeping very quiet all day, about three to four 

 o'clock they go again to feed. 



They nearly always resort to the same places and the 

 same nullas. Big herds always consist of females and young 

 males. 



When about five years old the males herd together in 

 small parties of two or three, sometimes more, but scarcely 

 ever exceeding eight or ten. Once only did I see twenty- 

 three. 



These herds of males spend the summer in the highest 

 and most remote nullas, but in winter they come lower- 

 down, and many die of starvation in the spring, when, after 

 a bad winter, the food runs short. One can see on the 

 ground many heads of old individuals which died in spring. 



During the summer there is not a single big male to be 

 seen near those places where the horns are found, and it is 

 evident that they only come in winter. 



Habits of 0. carelini. 



According to Lydekker Ovis carelini, like other sheep, 

 does not live exclusively amongst the rocks, as is the case 

 with the different species of Capra. It is not satisfied, like 

 the latter, with small tufts of grass growing in the clefts of 

 rocks, but requires more extensive feeding-grounds; it is. 

 therefore more easily driven from certain districts than is 

 the case with "Capra." In the neighbourhood of Kopal, 

 for instance, the goats are abundant in the centre parts of 

 the steppes of Kara, whilst the sheep have been partially 

 driven from these places visiting them in autumn. On the 

 southern ranges of the Semirechinsk Altai, in the vicinity of 

 the river Hi, wherever good meadows and rocky places are 

 found, O. carelini occurs at elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 

 feet; at the sources of the river Lepsa, Sarkan, Kora, 

 Karatala and Koksa it goes as high as 10,000 feet and even 



