THE ARGALI. 
551 
winter the shepherd can safely lie on the ground wrapped in his sheep-skin mantle. For this 
purpose, the skin is dressed without removing the wool. 
In a state of nature, all Sheep are furnished with a pair of horns, but in the cultivated 
races these ornaments generally become obliterated. A curious exception to this principle 
occurs in the many -horned 
varieties which are found in 
several parts of Asia, and 
which sometimes possess as 
many as three distinct pairs 
of horns. The additional 
or accessory appendages 
are slighter in their make 
than the true horns, and 
are generally placed on the 
upper parts of the head. 
Their tips almost invari- 
ably take an upward direc- 
tion, while the true horns 
generally curl downward, 
and retain a portion of the 
tendency to a spiral form. 
Giants among the ovine 
race, the Moxjflons tower 
far above every other vari- 
ety of the Sheep. These 
animals may be found in 
several portions of the 
world, several species being 
inhabitants of Asia, one 
of Sardinia and Corsica, 
and one of Northern Amer- 
ica. Of these gigantic 
Sheep, the Aegali of Sibe- 
ria is the most conspicu- 
ous, as well for general 
dimensions, as for the enor- 
mous size of the horns. 
The Argali is nearly as 
large as a moderately sized 
ox, being four feet high at 
the shoulders and propor- 
tionately stout in its build. 
The horns of a full-grown 
male Argali are very nearly four feet in length if measured along the curve, and at their 
base are about nineteen inches in circumference. They spring from the forehead, and 
after rising perpendicularly for a short distance, curve boldly downwards until they reach 
below the chin, when they recurve upwards and come to a point. The surface of the 
horns is covered with a series of deep grooves set closely together, and extending almost 
to the very extremities. Firmly as these weapons are fixed upon the animal’s forehead, 
they are sometimes fairly broken off in the fierce conflicts which these creatures wage 
with each other when they fight for the possession of some desirable female. These 
broken horns are not suffered to lie unobserved on the ground, but are soon utilized by 
the foxes and other small mammalia which inhabit the same country, and converted at 
THE SARDINIAN MOUFLON. — Ovis musimon. 
t 
