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ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 
Siberian Argali. Mr. David Dooglass, in the Zoological Journal, in April, 
1829, describes a species under the name of Ovis Calfornica, which he 
supposed to be the sheep mentioned by Picolo. Cook, in his third voyage 
evidently obtained the skin of the Rocky Mountain Sheep on the north 
west coast of America. Mr. McGillivery, in 1823, presented to the 
New-York Museum a specimen of this animal, and published an account 
of it in the Medical Repository of New-York. This specimen being after- 
wards sent to France, a description and figure of it were published. Lewis 
and Clark, some years afterwards, brought male and female specimens to 
Philadelphia, which were figured by Griffith and Godman. 
Several eminent naturalists, and among the rest Baron Cuvier, eonsider- 
ed it the same as Ovis Ammon, supposing it to have crossed Behring’s Straits 
on the ice. We have never had an opportunity of comparing the two spe- 
eies, but have examined them separately. Our animal is considerably the 
largest, and differs widely in the curvature of its horns from those of the 
eastern continent. We have no doubt of its being a distinct species 
from Ovis Ammon, 
We doubt moreover, whether Ovis Californica will be found distinct from 
Ovis Montana ; the climate in those elevated regions is every where cold. 
There are no intermediate spaces where the northern species ceases to 
exist, and the southern to commence, and when we take into consideration 
the variations of colour in difierent individuals, as also in the same indi- 
vidual in summer and winter, we should pause before we admit Ovis Cal- 
ifornica as a true species. We have therefore added this name as a 
synonyme of Ovis Montana. 
