of the typical race of this species, the British Museum being singularly
deficient in examples. Indeed, almost the only good skin it possesses is that
of an old male, which is mounted and exhibited. It is apparently in the
winter coat, judging from the length and thickness of the hair, and
remarkable for its extreme paleness, but whether this is normal or due to
fading, I am unable to say.
Mr. E. S. Cameron informs me that in autumn and winter the prevailing
tint is the same as that of the mule-deer, namely, a dark brownish-
gray, and when the two animals are placed side by side no difference can
be perceived in the colour of the upper-parts. In the sheep the underparts
anteriorly, portions of the legs, and the tail, are brown ; a narrow
strip of the brown colour of the tail being continued across the white of
the rump and meeting the gray of the back. The tail itself is very short,
only 4 inches in the largest rams, surrounded by an extensive patch of
yellowish-white extending between the thighs and to the groin. Measured
from the root of the tail this disk reaches 8^ inches above and 8-|- inches
on either side in full-grown examples, and is thus very conspicuous in
the bad-lands where these sheep show up like a band of pronghorns—more
especially in early summer. The muzzle is of the same yellowish-white
colour. A broad yellowish-whitegf|tripe extends down the inside of the
fore-legs and on the outside of the hind-legs ; or, in other words, the legs
are half-white and half-brown ; but I have seen old rams in which this
white was much circumscribed. In the spring the sheep gradually bleach
out lighter and appear of a dun colour until they shed the coat, which may
be any time from the end of May to the middle of July according to the
season.
The following are some of the largest horn-measurements of the present
and other American races recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward :—
Length along
Front Curve.
Basal
Circumference. Tip to Tip. Locality.
45 ? ? p
42j i6 i 25l Lower California
42 16 ? Wyoming
p ! l i p „
4° i 16 b p . Yellowstone
40 1 s i p Rocky Mountains
4° i !S i 20j- p
' 39t r5§ ? Colorado
39 b Montana
39 b x5i r9 p
39 x5ä ?
39 H i I8J Rocky Mountains
38f - i 5i 24 p
.3«i 1 S i *9i Montana
, .384 i6 f p Bighorn Mountains
38 17 p North-West Territory
38 15 ? British Columbia
31% ■ 23f • Mexico
31% i&i 22 A- British Columbia
37i kS I 6 ,,
37 16 31 Wyoming
37 . p Montana v
36f 19 British Columbia
36l x5j 22i Wyoming
■ 14 ! ?
■ 3^i 14b p p
3ty H Wyoming
'emale horns seldom measure more than 1 5 inches along the curve.
Mr. Ward says that “ large horns of the male are now very difficult to
obtain, and I have seldom of late years seen fresh-killed specimens whose
horns exceed 38 inches on the curve from base to tip.- American sportsmen
are very keen to obtain horns of large circumference, and, as will be
seen from the records here given, they very seldom exceed 16 inches.”
Distribution.—Not definitely defined, but embracing the mountainous