THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
a truly wild beast, and I longed to possess those spreading horns. Now he 
looked straight at me, and being detected fairly in the open one could do 
nothing but keep quite still and hope for the best. I hid my face in the heather 
and did not look up until a tinkle of stones warned me the game was on the 
run. As good luck would have it, however, the goat did not retreat beyond 
the ridge, in which case he would have been out of sight at once, but ran 
along it and then down into the dip, attempting to pass below. The shot was 
a long one, about 150 yards, but I sat up at once and had ample time to 
achieve a good shooting position. At the first shot from the Mannlicher the 
goat stumbled and turned straight downhill, the bullet having hit him 
too low, but at the second he collapsed and was quite dead when I got up 
to him. This was a very fine specimen. The horns were of the divergent 
type, 34 inches long and very massive. 
The only wild sheep that may be hunted in Europe is the European 
moufflon, Ovis musimon , a native of Corsica and Sardinia. This grand 
little sheep holds its own in Sardinia, in spite of constant persecution; but 
in Corsica the numbers are decreasing, although it is well preserved on a 
few estates. 
In size the male is about 27 inches at the shoulder. The hair is close 
and thick and elongated in winter on the throat of the rams so as to form 
a distinct fringe, with a thick underpile of wool at the same season. The 
colour of adult rams in early autumn is a rich rufous -brown, becoming 
chocolate brown on the head and face. The muzzle, chin, and upper throat 
are white. The sides of the neck, lower throat, chest, a line on the flanks 
and the sides of the white saddle, sides of the forelegs above the knees and 
hind legs above the hocks are black. The underparts, except for a narrow 
dark streak between the forelegs and the buttocks, pure white; lower parts 
of the forelegs and hindlegs below the hocks, white. In winter and spring 
the colour is generally darker. 
The horns of the males are very large in proportion to the size of the 
animal. They form a close spiral curve, generally with the tips bending 
forwards and outwards, but sometimes turning inwards. Heads from 
Sardinia are generally larger than those from Corsica, whilst those from 
Austria are often very massive but not so long. In confinement with good 
feeding the horns of the male grow somewhat larger than wild specimens. 
The finest I have seen was one (imported from Corsica) which lived for 
some years in the small menagerie belonging to the Prince of Monaco at 
Monte Carlo. I had this remarkable specimen photographed, and although 
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