82 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
“ The following* are measurements taken from a full-grown male, though not the largest in the Mission 
collection :— 
Total length from between the horns to tip of tail . 
Inches. 
62- 
Length of head ........ 
13-25 
Tail (including the hair at tip 1| inches long) . 
m . 
5-5 
Distance between snout and base of ear (the eye lies below this 
line). 
connecting 
12-75 
Distance between base of ear and the eye 
3-25 
Distance between snout and eye ..... 
8-5 
Distance from the contact of horns to snout 
12* 
Breadth between the anterior angle of eyes 
m m 
6- 
Length of ear in front ....... 
m t, 
4-75 
Height of shoulder (the hair being smoothed, beginning from 
the middle of the hoof at the side) .... 
the edge of 
44* 
Girth round the breast. 
» * 
51-5 
Length of one horn along the periphery .... 
* * 
48* 
Circumference of one horn at base ..... 
# # 
15- 
Distance between the tips ...... 
• . 
38- 
“ The colour of full-grown females does not differ essentially from that of the males, except that the former 
have much less white on the middle of the upper neck. The snout is sometimes brown, sometimes almost entirely 
white, the dark eye-pits becoming then particularly conspicuous. The dark ridge along the tail is also 
scarcely traceable. 
“ In size, both sexes of Ovis poll appear to be very nearly equal; but the head of the female is less 
massive, and the horns, as in allied species, are comparatively small: the length of the horns of one of the 
largest females obtained is 14 inches along the periphery, the distance at the tips being 15 inches, and at the 
base a little more than 1 inch. The horns themselves are much compressed; the upper anterior ridge is 
wanting on them; they curve gradually backwards and outwards towards the tip, though they do not nearly 
complete even a semicircle. 
“ In young males, the horns at first resemble in direction and slight curvature those of the female, hut they 
are always thicker at the base and distinctly triangular. 
“ The length of the biggest horn of a male along the periphery of curve was 56 inches, and the greatest 
circumference of a horn of a male specimen at the base, 18| inches. 
“ Mr. Blyth, the original describer of Ovis poll from its horns, was justified in expecting, from their 
enormous size, a correspondingly large-bodied animal; but in reality such does not appear to exist. Although 
the distance between the tips of the horns seems to be generally about equal to the length of the body, and 
although the horns are very much larger, but not thicker than those of the Ovis ammon of the Himalayas, or 
equally massive, the body of the latter seems to be comparatively higher. Still it is possible that the Ovis poll 
of the Pamir may stand higher than the specimens described, which were obtained from the Thian-Shan 
range. 
“ Large flocks of Ovis poll were observed on the undulating high plateau to the south of the Chadir Kul. 
where grass vegetation is abundant. At the time the officers of the Mission visited this ground, i. e., in the 
beginning of January, it was the rutting season. The characters of the ground upon the Pamir and upon the 
part of the Thian-Shan inhabited by these wild sheep are exactly similar.” 
I find from the skins preserved, that the dark mark above the tail is not constantlv 
present even in males; in females Dr. Stoliczka notices that it is deficient. Some specimens 
are far more hoary, especially on the neck and flanks, than others. 
All the skins of Ovis Imrelini obtained by Dr. Stoliczka appear to have been shot in 
winter. The animals from which they were taken were, I believe, brought down frozen to 
Kashghar. 
