22 



GREAT GAME ANIMALS. 



family-parties; the old males generally keeping apart from the 

 rest. Although essentially mountain animals, Sheep generally 

 frequent open undulating districts, rather than the precipitous 

 heights to which Goats are partial. 



A number of breeds of domesticated Sheep are exhibited in the 

 North Hall, among which special attention may be directed 

 to one from the West Indies (originally a native of Africa) cha- 

 racterised by its hairy coat, the colour of which is very similar to 

 that of the wild Urial Sheep of the Punjab exhibited in the Lower 

 Mammal Gallery. Other breeds of Ovis aries (as domesticated 

 sheep are called) are characterised by the development of a mass 

 of fat on the buttocks, while in others, again, the long tail becomes 

 flattened and loaded with fat. Specimens of both these breeds 

 are shown. Yet other Sheep are distinguished by the development 

 of an additional pair of horns; specimens of two distinct Four- 

 horned breeds, one from the Hebrides and the other from South 

 Africa, being exhibited. Very remarkable is the spiral-horned 

 Wallachian Sheep (O. aries strepsiceros) , characterised by the 

 straight corkscrew-like spiral of the horns, as shown in a mounted 

 ram. This type of horn passes, however, into the ordinary form, 

 through breeds allied to the Indian Hunia Fighting- Sheep, of 

 which a ram is shown. 



The long tail of most breeds of tame Sheep is probably a result 

 of domestication, as the Indian Urial and the Sardinian Mouflon, 

 one or both of which probably represents the ancestral stock, are 

 short-tailed. 



[Pavilion Bighorn Sheep. The Wild Sheep of the Rocky Mountains of 



at end of " North America locally known as the " Bighorn " 



Mammal Ciuimsis - elc " and scientifically as Ovis canadensis (or 



Gallery. O. cervina) , is the type of a group of large Sheep characterised by 

 47^& 8 48 ] ^ e com P ara tive smoothness of the strongly angulated horns, in 

 which the outer front angle is very prominent, while the inner one 

 is rounded off. The gland on the face is very small. The true 

 Bighorn (1052) is a khaki-coloured Sheep with a large white 

 rump-patch. The Black Bighorn (O. stonei, 1053) of the Sticheen 

 and Liard River districts is, on the other hand, a dark-coloured 

 animal; while the White Bighorn (O. dalli, 1854) of Alaska is 

 almost pure white : both these having narrower and more pointed 

 horns and smaller ears than the true Bighorn. The Grey Bighorn 



