Armenian Sheep. 
Ovis Gmelini , Blyth, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 69 and 78. 
The following account is given by Edward Blyth, Esq.:— 
“ This species belongs to the Moufflon group, but is yet very different from the Moufflon Sheep of Corsica. 
It is described and rudely figured in the Reise durch Russland (vol. iii. p. 486, and Tab. lv.) of the younger 
Gmelin; and the skull and horns, forwarded by that naturalist to St. Petersburgh, have been figured and 
described by Pallas in his Spieilegia (Fasc. xii. p. 15, and Tab. v. fig. 1). Messrs. Brandt and Ratzeburg 
erroneously identified it, at the suggestion of M. Lichtenstein, with the wild Cyprian species, the horns of 
which have a nearly similar flexure. 
“According to M. Gmelin, this species is found only on the highest mountains of Persia. Its rutting 
season takes place in September, and lasts a month; and the female yeans in March, producing two or three 
lambs at a tune. The males, he informs us, are very quarrelsome amongst each other; insomuch that he had 
been at one place where the ground was completely strewed with horns that had been knocked off in their 
contests: so that if any variation in the flexure of these horns had been observable, this industrious naturalist 
would doubtless have remarked it. Sir John M‘Neill informed me that ‘it appears to be the common species 
of the mountains of Armenia, occurring likewise on the north-west of Persia;’ but the wild sheep of the central 
parts of Persia is evidently distinct, ‘having horns much more resembling those of the domestic ram, being- 
spiral, and completing more than one spiral circle. I think I am not mistaken in supposing,’ continues Sir John, 
‘that I have also had females of this species brought to me by the huntsmen with small horns, resembling those 
of the ewes of some of our domestic sheep; but, on reflection, I find that I cannot assert this positively, though 
I retain the general impression.’ It is highly probable that a Avild type of 0. Aries is here adverted to, which 
would thus inhabit the same ranges of mountains as the wild common goat ( C. JEgagrus) ; and, Avith respect to 
the circumstance of horns in the female sex, I may here remark that this character is very apt to be inconstant 
throughout the present group. It has already been noticed, in the instance of 0. Nahoor; and the elder 
Gmelin states that the females of 0. Ammon are sometimes hornless, Avhile those of the Corsican 0. Musimon 
are generally so. The same likeAvise happens in different species of Avild goats, in the Goral of India, and 
in the prong-horned animal of North America; and even in the gazelles, and other ovine-nosed species of 
what are commonly confused together under the name of Antelope , there have been instances of hornless 
males as Avell as females. 
“ Fine specimens of the male, female, and young, received by this Society from Erzeroom, presented by 
Dr. E. D. Dickson and Id. J. Ross, Esq., Corr. Members, enable me to give the folloAving description:— 
“ Size of an ordinary tame sheep, AYith a remarkably short coat, of a lively chestnut-fulvous colour, deepest 
upon the back: the limbs and under parts, whitish, with feAV traces of dark markings, except a finely contrasting 
black line of more lengthened hair doAvn the front of the neck of the male only, widening to a large patch on 
the breast; and, in both sexes, a strip of somewhat lengthened mixed black and white hairs, above the mid 
joint of the fore-lhnbs anteriorly, which corresponds to the tuft of 0. Tragelaphus: tail, small, and very 
slender: horns of the male, subtrigonal, compressed, and very deep, Avith strongly marked angles and cross-striae, 
diverging backwards, with a slight arcuation to near the tips, which incline inwards. As regards the flexure 
alone, but not the character of the horn, which is allied to that of the common ram, this handsome species links 
the Moufflon group Avith the Nahoor and Burrhel group. 
“ Horns, about full-groAvn, or nearly so, twenty inches over the curvature, ten round at base, four deep at 
base inside; their Avidest portion two feet apart, and tips twenty-one inches, Avith a span of thirteen and a half 
inches from base to tip inside; their colour, pale. Around the eye and muzzle, this species is whitish; the 
chaffron and front of the limbs are more or less tinged with dusky; and its coat is rather harsh, and fades 
considerably in brightness before it is shed. Female, generally similar, but smaller, Avith no black doAvn the 
front of the neck, and in the observed instances hornless. The lengthened black hair of the male is only one 
mch long; and that composing the tuft on the fore-limbs is so disposed that the latter is Avhite in the centre, 
flanked with blackish. 
“Length, nearly five feet, from nose to tail: the tail, four inches.” 
