70 Field and Forest Rambles. 



habit with certain naturalists to isolate closely allied forms, 

 on the score of adding to the fauna and flora of the country 

 in which their own particular fields of study have been directed. 

 This is very apparent with several well-known American 

 zoologists, and seems in some instances to arise from an idea 

 that whatever remarkable objects are furnished by the Old 

 World, there are equally interesting representatives in the 

 New, but distinct, and therefore must on no account be allowed 

 to be considered identical. I am far, however, from wishing 

 to apply this solely to the many distinguished observers who 

 adorn the annals of natural science in the United States, nor 

 to assert that it is a general practice anywhere ; the merest 

 tyro knows full well that the affinities and analogies of natural 

 objects are not so easily defined as all that ; but this much I 

 do believe, that if the study of the Geographical Distributions 

 of animals and plants were prosecuted with the vigour bestowed 

 in the descriptive details of the individual objects, we should 

 have fewer synonyms in our nomenclature. Reverting to the 

 subject of allied natural objects common to the old and new 

 worlds, I have been much interested in an elaborate article 

 on the well-known Big-horn or large Mountain Sheep (Ovis 

 montand) of the Rocky Mountains,* more especially as 

 during my wanderings in central Asia I had frequent oppor- 

 tunities of examining specimens of the equally magnificent 

 Mufflon of that region, named the Ovis Ammon, or Nnang 

 of the Tibetians. The specific differences, according to the 

 excellent authority named, taken from specimens of the 

 American animal, are referable to slight discrepancies in the 

 curvature, dimensions, direction, markings, and distances be- 

 tween the horns. Now, having examined very many heads 

 and skins of the Ovis Ammon of the Himalayas, I have 

 found the differences in all these respects in individuals even 

 more pronounced than Mr. Baird seeks to establish as specific 

 between it and the Big-horn of western America. 



* Baird, " Pacific Railway Report," vol. viii., p. 674. 



