when knocking their heads together. When engaged in such a fight
they utter a kind of low grunt, and the noise of the horns against each
other can be heard a long way off. They do not move about at night
except when disturbed.
“ One has to be very cautious when watching Ovis poli, as they have
excellent sight and are wonderfully keen-scented. I f they see anything,
they all stand looking at it, crowding against each other and striking the
ground with the fore-feet, often coming some paces nearer. All at once
one bounds away, all the herd follows, and before long all stop again and
turn to look at what has disturbed them. Then they start again and stop
again, sometimes every two or three hundred yards. . . . They nearly
always resort to the same places and the same nullas. Big herds always
consist of females and young males. When about five years old the males
herd together in small parties of two or three, sometimes more, but scarcely
ever exceeding eight or ten. Once only I saw twenty-three. These herds
of males spend the summer in the highest and most remote nullas, but in
winter they come lower down, and many die of starvation in the spring,
when, after a bad winter, the food runs short. One can see on the grounds
many heads of old individuals which died in the spring. In some places_
they are to be seen by dozens, and by the more or less decayed condition
of the horns and skulls one can guess how long they have been lying on
the ground. During the summer there is not a single big male to be seen
near those places where the horns are found, and it is evident that they
only come in winter. . . . When galloping they have a peculiar way of
keeping the head quite erect ; this is certainly due to the great weight of
the horns, which would be felt much more i f the head were kept straight
out. All the same, they go very fast indeed downhill, and their gallop is
a long stride even when going uphill; but I noticed more than once
what a peculiar stiff action they have in the shoulder, which is due to the
way they carry their heads.”
The weight of a good ram’s head is estimated by the Viscount at about
40 lbs.; and to »support this enormous burden great strength of neck
is requisite. This is effected by an excessive development of the great
tendon of the neck, the ligamentum nucha; of anatomists, which is like a
cable. Some idea of the numbers in which these magnificent sheep are
found on the Pamirs may be gathered from a statement of the same
writer, to the effect that he estimated the number he saw during a single
day’s hunting at not less than 600 head. Such a profusion of large animals
is only to be met with elsewhere in Africa, and formerly on the American
prairies.
b. T hian Shan R ace—Ovis poli k a r e l in i
„ (?) Ovis sculptorum, Blyth, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 1 2 ; Flower and
Garson, Gat. Osteol. Mus. Coll. Surg. pt. ii. p. 245 (1884).
Ovis karelini', Severtzoff, Trans. Soc. Moscou, vol. viii. art. 2, pp. 1 5 °
and 154, pi. i. (1873), Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xviii. pp. 17 1 ,
210, and 2 17 (1876) ; Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 5 1 2 ; Blanford,
Results o f Yarkand Mission—Mamm. p. 80 (1879).
(?) Ovis collium, Severtzoff, Trans. Soc. Moscou, vol. viii. art. 2, p. 154
( i 873)-
(?) Ovis heinsii, Severtzoff, opl^it. pp. 150 and 154 (1873) ; Brooke,
Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 5 17 ; Prezewalski, Cat. Zool. Coll. p. 15 (1887).
Ovis poli, Stoliczka, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 425, pi. liii.
Characters.—Distinguished from the typical race by the following
characters A l lo rn s of adult male shorter, their spiral seldom much
exceeding one complete circle ; the outer front angle in some specimens
completely rounded off at the base, but in other examples sharp. In the
winter coat apparently rather less white on the buttocks and thighs, and
the upper part of the face, at least frequently, brownish instead of pure
white ; female in winter coat (according to Dr. Stoliczka s figure) with a