dark stripe from the back of the head to the root of the tail. Height at
shoulder ranging from 3 feet 6 inches to 3 feet 8 inches.
Ovis karelini was first described upon the evidence of specimens
obtained from the Alatau, north of Lake Issik Kul in the Semirechinsk
Altai, the translation of SevertzofPs original description running as follows :
“ The horns are moderately thick, with rather rounded edges; frontal
surface very prominent;' orbital surface rather flat, narrowing only in the
last third of its length. The horns are three times asWong as the
skull. . . . The neck is covered by a white mane shaded with grayish-
brown. The light brown of the back and sides is separated from the
yellowish-white of the belly by a wide dark line. The light brown of
the upper-parts gets gradually lighter towards the tail, where it becomes
grayish-white, but does not form a sharply defined, anal disk. On the
back there is a sharply marked dark line running from the shoulders to
the loins. I did not find any soft hair under the long winter hair in
October. . . . Height at the shoulder 3.^je e t 6 inches; length of the
horns from 44 to 45 inches.”
This description obviously applies to animals in the winter coat.
In the continuation of his memoir Severtzoff states that the same sheep,
inhabits all the neighbourhood of Issik Kul, to the south ojj|which it is
met with, although not very commonly, on the northern flanks of the
Thian Shan, which are more or less wooded. Now during the sojourn
of the Second Yarkand Expedition at Kashgar numerous large sheep were
brought in, which were in the winter dress and had been transported from
the Thian Shan, apparently in a frozen condition. Although described by
Dr. Stoliczka as the true Ovis poli, they were subsequently identified by Sir
V. Brooke with the O. karelini of Severtzoff, and from the locality whence
they came, and their general agreement with the description of the
latter, there can be little hesitation in accepting the identification. Dr.
Stoliczka’s description o f the coloration of the male is as follows: “ General
colour above hoary brown, distinctly rufescent or fawn on the upper hind
neck and above the. shoulders, darker on the loins, with a dark line extending
along the ridge of the tail to the tip. Head above and at the
sides a grayish-brown, darkest on the hinder part, where the central hairs
are from 4 to 3- inches long ; while between the shoulders somewhat
elongated hairs indicate a short mane. Middle of upper part of neck
hoary white, generally tinged with fawn ; sides of body and' the upper
part of the. limBs; shading from brown tjjfwhite, the hairs becoming more
and more tipped with the latter colour. Face, all the lower-parts, limbs,
tail, and all the undef-parts, extending well above towards the loins, more
white. The hairs on the lower neck are very much lengthened, being from
5 to. 6 inches Hh;g. Ears hoary brown externally, almost white internally.”
Several of these specimens are now mounted in the British Museum ;
and all of them show moré or less brown on the upper half of the face,
while the dark line bn the tail ijSnot apparent. Otherwise they accord
well with the description.
As already mentionedjjt is most unfortunate that there are no means
of comparing these specimen's; with the- corresponding (winter) dress of
the typical poli. But it seems most probable that at the same season the
gener^Soloration o f the two forms would be very similar ; and, apart
from other features, it iS th u s ' unlikely that karelini would in summer
assume the dark buttocks, thighs, and under-parts of O. sairensis. Still, as
has been stated above, in the dark upper part of the face and the blackish
dorsal stripe of the female the present form does lead on from the typical
poli in the direction of the latter.
With regard to the horns, one of the Thian Shan males in the British
Museum has the. outer front angle completely rounded off, as is well
shown in the figure given by Sir V. Brooke in the Zoological Society’s
Proceedings for 1875, p. 512, figs. 2 and 3, In the other examples,
however, both front angles are very strongly marked indeed ; and it does