and rocky places are found, Ovis karelini occurs at elevations of from 2000
to 3000 feet; at the sources of the rivers Lepsa, Sarkau, Kora, Karatala, and
Koksa it goes as high as 10,000 feet, and even to -12,000 feet in the
neighbourhood of the Upper Narin. In winter it is found at much lower
elevations.”
In the Field of 5th November 1898 Capt. R. B. Cobbold writes that
owing to rinderpest, which has raged throughout the' winter all over
the Pamirs, Ovis poli “ has, for the time being, become practically extinct.
All over the Russian Pamirs, and in the Taghdumbash also, hundreds
of dead animals may be seen; and in nullas where last October I
saw hundreds, in July last there were only skeletons. On the Taghdumbash
the rinderpest has not been so severe as on the Russian side ; but
large heads, owing to the numbers that have been shot by British sportsmen,
are few and far between. The nullas in Chinese territory- which hold
poli are in the north, the nullas near the Karaart Pass at the head of the
Kuntemisjgfiver; but there is no head-of 50 inches in_ any of them.
Farther south in the Taghdumbash, the Kungerab, Oprang, Bayik,
Kukturuk, and two nullas near Bozai -Gumbaz, still hold, a few small
heads ; but I saw no head of 50 inches in any of them this summer. The
big heads I killed last autumn, and which were lately mentioned in the
Field, were killed in the neighbourhood of the Bayik Pass ; and at that
time large males were numerous on the Russian and Chinese side of that
pass, but they have literally died in hundreds.”
Incert.« Sedis:
Ovis nigrimontana
Ovis nigrimontana, Severtzoff, Trans. See. Moscou, yol. viii. art. 2,
p. 154 (1873) ; Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 5 17 ; W. L. Sclater. Cat.
Mamm. Ind. Mus. pt. ii. p. 132 (1891).
Ovis darwini 203
Description.—The translation of SevertzofFs original description is as
follows “ The horns, are not massive; the fronto-nuchal edge is very
sharp, the other two edges are also not much rounded ; the frontal surface
ii$ narrow, but prominent; the other two surfaces pressed in, rendering the
edges sharp, especially the fronto-nuchal edge. A section of the base of the
horn shows the orbital and nuchal surfaces to be nearly equal in width,
each of them being about i-% times as wide as the frontal surface. . . .
The ridges of the horn are sharp, straight, and regularly parallel with each
other. . . . This species :1s, like Ovis heinsi, only known from ' skulls ;
amongst these iljSonc of an adult male. Through a telescope j||saw that
the-colour of the animal is a light grayish-brown, with a white belly and
rump. It is considerably smaller than Ovis karelini, being isne of the
smallest and weakest of all the Central Asiatic sheep. The length of
the horns in the type skull is given as 38 inches.
Bearing in mind the kjftwn variability in the horns of these large sheep,
the above description does, not appear sufficient to define this form, and
there are no specimens in the British Museum from the typical locality.
Mr. W. L. Sclater is:, however, jpjpbably right in his suggestion that O.
nigrimontana conforms to the ammon type, of which it may ^constitute a
small race, its distributional area being on the western border of that of the
latter species. I f it be true that this sheep has a white caudal disk and
under-parts, it seems, as already mentioned, unlikely that it can be the same
animal as Littledale’s sheep.
Distribution.— The Karatau, or Black Mountains, lying to the southwest
o f Kulja on the Mongolian frontier.
Ovis darwini
Ovis darwini, Prezewalski, Cat. Zool. Coll. p. 15 (1887).
The brief description of this sheep being in Russian, I can say nothing
either as to its characteristics or its habitat.