12 
The Mammals of Colorado 
bay at the edge of a cliff 20 or 25 feet high; when too closely 
pressed by the dogs he jumped off the cliff. Mr. Beaman 
describes it as follows: ''He made a sidewise spring straight 
out from the edge of the precipice, apparently six or eight 
feet, and then spread his feet in a sort of bracing way, and 
with his body in a perfectly horizontal position, and parallel 
to the face of the cliff dropped straight down to the foot of the 
cliff. . . . The position of this sheep when dropping was 
stiff legged, but the instant his feet touched the ground his 
joints gave way, with increasing resistance, however, his 
joints acting as springs, until his belly almost touched the 
ground, before the force of the impact was overcome by the 
muscular resistance." {Outdoor Life, xx., p. 253, 1907.) 
This observation was made at a distance of about 300 yards, 
and while probably correct in the main points, possibly some 
of the details may have not been caught as closely as one could 
wish, but this is no disparagement of an observation which 
is, so far as we know, unique. 
In that same region, at the head of Sapinero Creek, a 
considerable number of Mountain Sheep died of scab con- 
tracted from domestic sheep which had been herded there. 
One party told me that the remains of 75 head or more 
were found lying within a short distance of each other. 
It is possible that occurrences of this sort may have been an 
important factor in the decrease of the wild sheep at times. 
It is not quite so likely to occur nowadays, for the sheepmen 
are much more particular about protecting their flocks against 
this disease, and but few sheep are now allowed to be pastured 
on the Forest Reserves in Colorado, none in most of them, and 
most of our Mountain Sheep are on the reserves. 
Family ANTILOCAPRID^ 
Frontal appendages resembling those of the Bovid(E in 
most respects, consisting of unbranched horn-cores, and true 
