156 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 27. 



apparent reluctance. On one occasion the survivors of a band of 9 

 stood staring at the hunter and at their falling companions until the 

 majority of them had fallen, before they slowly retreated. At this 

 place they had not been hunted since the previous autumn, which 

 accounted for their tameness. Young of different sizes were observed 

 in that region on June 20 and July 6 and 9. At this time the pelage 

 of the old ones was usually very much worn. 



An adult female taken by Loring 15 miles south of Henry House, 

 July 5, 1896, has the back, head, neck, breast, sides, and outer aspect 

 of legs wood brown, this color darkest on the legs. A narrow darker 

 stripe extends from base of horns to tail, except where interrupted 

 on the lumbar region ; rump patch white, tinged with fawn, and 

 divided by the dark broAvn central stripe which extends down over 

 the tail; belly, inner aspect of legs, and a small patch beneath chin 

 w^hite, tinged with fawn. A young female killed at the same time is 

 much lighter than the adult, being mainly of a light dingy brown. 



Richardson, under the name O vis montana^ states that Drummond 

 shot many of these animals in the mountains near the head of the 

 Elk (Athabaska), and his account of the habits shows that they have 

 changed but little, the experience of the two naturalists agreeing very 

 closely in many details." 



Ovis stonei Allen. Stone Mountain Sheep. 



Concerning the range of this species in the Rocky Mountains about 

 the upper Liard River, A. J. Stone, the discoverer of the species, says : 



Tliey are foniid in the Rocky Mountains to the soutli as far as tlie lieadwaters 

 of the Nelson and Peace rivers, in latitude 56°. But I proved conclusively that 

 in the main range of the Rocky Mountains very few of them are found north of 

 the Liard River. Where this river sweeps through the Rocky Mountains to 

 Hells Gate, a few of these animals are found as far north as Beaver River, a 

 tributary of the Liard. None, however, are found north of this, and I am 

 thoroughly convinced that this is the only place where the animals may be 

 found north of the Liard River.^ 



Lydekker recently has described a specimen in the British Museum 

 from Liard River under the name Ovis canadensis liardensis.^ Bid- 

 dulph intimates that this specimen was taken by Doctor Rae. Since 

 the upper part of Liard River is within the range of Ovis stonei^ and 

 as the figures and descriptions of the two animals agree in most 

 particulars, it is probable that liardensis is a synonym of stonei. In 

 a later paper Lydekker comes to the same conclusion.^ 



« Fauna Boreali-Americana, I, pp. 272, 273, 1829. 



^ Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XII, p. 2, 1899. 



c Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats of all Lands, p. 215, 1898. 



^ Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1885, p. 679. 



^ Great and Small Game of Europe, Asia, and America, p. 13, 1901. 



