considered it the same as the argali of J . G. Gmelin (O. ammon, Linn.).
The name O. orientalis appears to have been first given, as from Gmelin,
by Keyserling, and Blasius in the Wirbelthiere Europas. The date on the
title-page of that work is 1840, and in the same year Mr. Blyth published
the name O. gmelini, which should, I think, be retained for the species,
since Keyserling and Blasius’s title is erroneously quoted as Gmelin’s,)? -<■
So far as it goes, this passage is perfectly correct, but the author
appears to have been unacquainted with Brandt and Ratzeburg’s O. musimon
orientalis, which antedates the names given both by the English and
German zoologists mentioned above, and is therefore, so far as the third
name is concerned, entitled to Stand for the species. .
The Ovis musimon orientalis of Brandt and Ratzeburg is stated to inhabit
the Armenian mountains of Persia, the Greek Islands, Cyprus, and
probably the Taurus, and to be distinguished from 0 . musimon occidentalis
by the backward and inward inclination of the tips o f the horns. As
Persia is mentioned before Cyprus, the name evidently belongs to the
Armenian rather than to the Cyprian variety.
Distribution. —^The mountains B f Elburz in Northern Persia,- those
of Armenia, and the Taurus range of Asia Minor. In Transcaucasia
(Armenia) Dr. Satunin states that this sheep occurs in the neighbourhood
of Kars and Eriwan, but extends some distance farther north.
Habits.—Messrs. Danford and Alston write as follows concerning this
sheep '“ It seems hardly ever to occur on the southern slopes of the
Taurus, preferring the barer districts of the north. Herr Kotschy,
otherwise so accurate in his observations, must have been misled into
stating that ten to twenty wild sheep are killed yearly at Gallek, as at.
that place, which is situated on the south side of the Bala Dagh, we
were assured that the species is not found. Specimens were obtained
from the district of Eregli, where they are common, and frequent the
salt-licks in large flocks. Winter is the easiest time of year to get at
them, the deeps snow which generally covers that part of the country
impeding their movements. At other times they are shy, and, owing
to the scarcity of covert, very difficult to approach. The severe winter
of 1873-74, which was so fatal to the tame breeds of sheep, also destroyed
a great number , of the wild specie 1| Gmelin’s sheep is a very graceful
animal, deer-like in its appearance, having long, fine limbs, and in the
male a thick, bushy throat.”
b. C y p r ia n R a ce— Ovis o r ien ta l is ophion
Ovis ophion, Blyth, Proc. '/.ool. Soc. 184b, p. 69; Brooke, ibid. 1875?
p. 526 ; Alston and Danford, ibid. 1880, p. 59 > Biddulph, ibid. 1884, P- 594s
pi. lxviii. ; Langkavel, Zool. Garten, vol. xxxii. p. 183 (1891) ; Ward,
Records o f Big Game, p. 256 (1896).
Ovis cyprius, BlasiljJ Sdugethiere Deutschlands, p. 473 (1857).
Caprovis ophion, Gray, Cat, Ruminants Brit. Mus. p. 56 (1872).
Characters. —Smallest of all wild sheep, the height at the shoulder
being only about 26^ inches. Horns of male with the outer front angle
■%o completely roundedHff that the outer and front surfaces are merged
into one ; entire horns less massive and more .slender than in the typical
race, and also curving more regularly from base to tip, with the transverse
wrinkles less fine. General colou rBf upper-parts bright foxy-red or
rufous-fawn, with a few scattered whitish hairs on the sides of the body
forming an incipient saddle-mark ; a line down the middle of the withers,
a band on the flanks continued on to the thighs, the tip of the upper
surface of the tail, a broad streak down the middle of the chest, showing
a tendency to develop into a patch®|n the lower part of the throat, front
of fore-legs above the knees, and a patch on the inner side of the thighs
above the hcs.cks black or blackish ; under-parts, a narrow line on the
buttocks, the inner surfaces of the thighs and of the fore-legs above the
knees, as well as the whole of the legs below the knees and hocks, together