1880.] R. Lydelcker — On the Zooloijical Foaition of the Bharal. 131 



IX. — On the Zoological Position of the Bharal, or Blue-Sheep, of 

 Tibet. — By E. Ltdekkee, B. A. 



(Eeceived Jan. 4tli ; — Eead Feb. 4th, 1880.) 



The Bharal or Blue-Sheep o£ the Tibetan region is one of those animals 

 which are peculiarly interesting, and at the same time peculiarly puzzling, 

 to the natm-alist, on account of its presenting affinities to two distinct 

 groups of animals, whereby the determination of its position in the zoolo- 

 gical scale is a matter of some considerably difficulty. 



As I shall sliow below, the bharal presents points of resemblance both 

 to the sheep and the goats, and this intermediate character of the animal 

 seems to have been the cause of considerable diversity of opinion among 

 naturalists, as to what genus, the animal should be referred. The late Mr. 

 Bryan Hodgson, in the Society's Journal,* proposed the generic name 

 Pseudois for the bharal. Mr. Hodgson, however, together with the late 

 Mr. Blyth, thought that there were two species of the genus, to which 

 were given the names P. naliiira and P. larhal. The latter writer, how- 

 ever, according to the late Dr. Jerdon, seems finally to have come to the 

 conclusion, that there was only one species of the genus, known as P. nnhura. 

 The late Dr. Grray, and, I believe, all subsequent writers, have adopted the 

 view of there being but one species of bharal. Hodgson's generic distinc- 

 tion was adopted by Dr. Gray.f The late Mr. H. N. Turner, J however, and 

 Mr. W. T. Blanford,§ class the bharal in the genus Ovis, though the last 

 named writer does not give his reasons for so doing. 



In the present paper, I shall notice certain points in the osteology of 

 this animal, which indicate its close relationship to the goats, and which, I 

 venture to think, are sufficient to confirm its generic distinction from Ovis. 



Mr. Hodgson, in his above quoted paper, first pointed out that the 

 bharal differed from all the true sheep in having no " eye-pits," but did not 

 point out that the absence of these " eye-pits" was a character common to 

 the bharal and the goats. || 



The so-called " eye-pits" are the depressions which occur in the lachry- 

 mal bones of many run^inants for the gland known as the " larmier." In 

 all the true sheep, the lachrymal bone has a very considerable larmial 

 depression, and the greater part of the outer surface of that bone is placed 



* J. A. S. B., Vol. xvi, p. 702. 



t Cat. of Mammalia in Brit. Mua. Pt. iii, p. 177, 1852. 



J " Sciontific Ecsults of 2nd Yarkund Mission," Mammalia, p. 85, Calcutta, 1874. 



§ Pro. Zool. Soc. Lon. 1850, p. 176. 



II I exclude the genua Ncmorhaedus from the goats. 



