THE MOUNTAIN SHEEP 
F OR a long while naturalists only knew one sheep in North America, 
namely, the Bighorn ( Ovis canadensis ), but in 1884 Nelson 
described the white bighorn as Ovis montana dalli. This, in 1897, 
was considered a species by both Allen and Merriam(0. dalli), and 
numerous travellers, naturalists and hunters, having killed or 
obtained in Alaska and British Columbia specimens of all colours 
intermediate between the typical race and its northern white form, have 
come to accept such partly coloured varieties as 0 . c. stonei , 0 . c. fannini , 
0. c. liardensis , etc. In the same way all the paler forms of the south 
inhabiting Mexico, California, Nevada, South Dakota, etc., have been 
honoured with specific names by Dr Merriam and other naturalists. 
Any broadminded observer, however, must see that all the sheep are 
one and the same animal, only varying in colour according to their geo- 
graphical distribution. Those of the north become whiter as they are 
found in a severer climate, blacker in the mountains of Central British 
Columbia, and sandier in varying degree as the species approaches or 
reaches the sandy coloured and sun-parched hills of the south. 
On the other hand, there are those who, for the sake of explanation in 
local races, prefer to have them called by some Latin appellation which 
will be a means of identification for each separate group, and with them 
we must not disagree because their claims are just. It is only when these 
local races are referred to as species, as is constantly the case with American 
naturalists, that we must assert our protest. 
In no group of American animals, except the caribou, has the confusion 
of local races been so complete as amongst the sheep, and this is due for 
the most part to the fact that where each separate group of brown, black, 
sandy, or white sheep exists, members of the allied races that touch them 
on one or other side, will be found running amongst them.* 
Those who wish to recognize the various sub -specific races of the big- 
horn in North America will perhaps be satisfied with the following table: 
BIGHORN OR ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP 
1. Rocky Mountain Sheep, Ovis canadensis (Shaw). 
Range: South and Central British Columbia, Wyoming, Montana to 
Arizona. 
*The name Canadensis probably antedates the name Cervina of Desmarest. 
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