274 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



may eventually prove to be a distinct species, or merely a permanent variety, no 

 inconvenience can result from describing it, for the present, under a name already 

 appropriated to it. In the Museum of the Linnean Society there is a good 

 specimen of a sheep from the mountains of Nepaul, which does not appear to 

 differ from the Siberian argali, but seems very distinct from the American one. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Size, much greater than the largest-sized varieties of the domestic sheep. It is bigger than 

 the argali. 



The horns of the male are very large, arise a short way above the eyes, and occupy almost 

 the whole space between the ears, but do not touch each other at their bases. They curve 

 first backwards, then downwards, forwards and upwards, until they form a complete turn, 

 during the whole course of which they recede from the side of the head in a spiral manner. 

 They diminish in size rapidly towards their points, which are turned upwards. At their bases, 

 and for a considerable portion of their length, they are three-sided, the anterior or upper side 

 being, as it were, thickened, and projecting obtusely at its union with the two others. This 

 side is marked by transverse furrows, which are less deep the further they are from the scull ; 

 and towards the tips the horns are rounded, and but obscurely wrinkled. The furrows extend 

 to the other two sides of the horn, but are there less distinct. The intervals of the furrows 

 swell out, or are rounded. 



The horns of the female are much smaller, and nearly erect, having but a slight curvature, 

 and an inclination backwards and outwards. 



The ears are of a moderate size ; the facial line straight, and the general form of the 

 animal rather elegant, being intermediate betwixt that of the sheep and the stag. Tail very 

 short. The hair is like that of the rein-deer, being, on its first growth in the autumn, short, 

 fine, and flexible ; but, as the winter advances, becoming much coarser, dry, and brittle, though 

 at the same time it feels soft to the touch. In the latter season the hair is so close at its 

 roots, that it is necessarily erect. The legs are covered with shorter hairs. 



The head, buttocks, and posterior part of the belly, are white ; the rest of the body and the 

 neck are of a pale umber or dusky wood-brown colour. A deeper and more shining brown 

 prevails on the anterior aspect of the legs. The tail is dark-brown, and a narrow brown line, 

 extending from its base, runs up betwixt the white buttocks, to unite with the brown colour of 

 the back. The colours reside in the ends of the hair, and as these are rubbed off during the 

 progress of the winter, the tints become paler. The old rams are almost totally white in the 

 spring. This is the case with the male specimen in our plate. The female, in the back 

 ground, presented the colours mentioned above. 



Dimensions 

 Of an Old Rocky-Mountain Ram, killed on the south branch of the Mackenzie, and now in the Zoological Museum. 

 Feet. Inches. Feet. Inches. 



Length of head and body . . .6 Circumference of a horn at its base . 1 1 



Height at fore-shoulder ..35 Distance from the tip of one horn to the tip 



Length of tail . . . .0 2 of the other . . . .2 



„ one horn, measured along its 

 curvature . 2 h 



