in the winter coat, although of the usual dark colour. And examples
shot by Dr. Guillemard in September, which had likewise assumed their
winter dress, were also dark coloured. In the Museum at Tring Park
there is, however, the head of a white bighorn killed in Kamschatka
during winter. From this it would seem that these sheep are dark-
coloured on the first assumption of the winter coat in autumn, but that
as winter advances the hairs of this coat turn pure white, precisely in the
manner of those of the common stoat in many parts»##" its habitat.
Whether, however, all the individuals of the race thus whiten, or whether
the change is restricted to those inhabiting the coldest districts, remains
to be determined.
Distribution.-^Typically the countries forming the northern shore|§bf
the Sea of Okhotsk, namely the peninsula of Kamschatka on the east
and the Stanovoi Mountains on the west, and apparently also the Chukchi
country to the north, so that the distributional area not improbably
includes the districts bordering om-Bering Strait. There is a l l considerable
evidence that the. range probably extends eastwards through
Northern Siberia near to, i f not to, the valley o f the Yenisei. Middendorff7
for example, convinced himself of the existence of a wild sheep eastward
from the Yenisei in about latitude 67° N., in the Sywerma Mountains, near
the sources .of the river Cheta. And it is probably the present or a closely
allied race that Severtzoff described under the name of O. borealis. The
sheep in question was first obtained from the Chalunga and Pjasina valleys'
in Northern Siberia, and was said to be iritermediate between ammon and
nivicola, although much nearer the latter, of which it might turn out
to be only a variety. Subsequently the lime naturalist wrote of it as
follows:—
“ Very near to Ovis nivicola is another, is1 yet not properly identified
sheep from North Siberia, from the mountains which separate the basins
of the rivers Nyjnaya and Tungasca, tributaries of the Yenesei, from that
of the Chalunga and Pjasina. Several perfect specimens of this animal
were obtained by Mr. Schmidt’s expedition for the Zoological Museum
óf the Academy of Sciences at Moscow.” More recently the same sheep
has been recorded by Messrs. Bunge and Toll, in the account of their
journey to the New'Siberian Islands, from the Upper Lena districts. No
specimens are available in England for comparison with the typical
Kamschatkan form of this race. I f the Siberian form should prove to be
distinct, it would have to be known as O. canadensis borealis. A point of
special • interest to determine is whethegit really shows any resemblance
to. the ammon type, as suggested§Jh Severtzoff’s original description, since,
on distributional grounds, such an approximation might reasonably be
expected to occur.
Habits.-^-In the peninsula o f Kamschatka, according to Dr. Guillemard,
the bighorn, although not unknown in the interior, exhibit a preference for
the slopes of thé sea-cliifs, where they are found in small flocks of from three
to five individuals. Somewhat curiously, all those met with by his party
were adult rams, So that the ewes1 and younger ram$ evidently herd by
themselves fogMpme portion of the year, perhaps keeping to the more
inland distric®. Some idea of the rugged nature of the ground affected
by the rams may be gleaned from the following account given by Dr.
Guillemard in the Cruise o f the
“ Passing beneath the cliff at the entrance to the bay we witnessed the
death of a bighorn under unusual circumstances, for these animals are in
general as sure-footed as a chamois?, A couple .of them had been driven
into a corner by some members of our party at the top of the cliff, but one
broke back almost immediately. The other, perched on a little pinnacle
at the edge of the precipice, seemed about to follow its comrade, but
hBtated, turned, and ran back. As it did so its foot slipped. It checked
itself for a moment, slipped again, made one desperate effort to regain its
footing, and was “over in an instant. The creature never moved a muscle
2 G1