| OCR Text |
Show 522 SIR VICTOR BROOKE AND MR. B. BROOKE [June 15, neck. General colour grizzly brown. An indefinitely bounded patch on the face below the eyes, and all four limbs anteriorly rich uniform dark brown. Space round the muzzle, upper and under lip, rump, and posterior part of the haunches, centre of the belly, and the limbs posteriorly pure white. The white on the posterior parts of the limbs gives place very suddenly to the brown of their anterior surfaces. The white of the rump does not surround the tail, which on its upper surface is darker than the back. Ears and tail very short. Horns in form closely resembling those of Ovis montana. Frontal and nuchal surfaces convex. Orbital surface flat. Fronto-nuchal and nuchal edges very greatly rounded. Fronto-orbital edge strongly defined, a deep groove lying between it and the orbital surface. The terminal curve of the horns well developed, and directed upwards and outwards. Skull remarkably short and broad, and strongly anchylosed. A shallow anteorbital fossa. Length from between horns to end of prsemaxillse 10", its greatest width across the orbits 6f" ; height at the shoulder 37"; length of horns round curve 33", their circumference 12|". Adult 3. Mus. Strassburg. Only differs from the former in being considerably paler in colour. Length of horns 2 7"; their circumference 13V. Adult 2 • Mus. Lugd. Is darker than the male, and has short compressed horns about 9" in length. The distribution of colour is the same as in the male. Bange.-Kamtschatka (Eschscholtz) ; Stanovoi Mountains, as far south as the sources of the Utschur (Middendorff). Besides the above locality, Middendorff convinced himself of the occurrence of a Wild Sheep at about 67° N. lat., eastward from Yenisei, in the Sywerma Mountains, near the sources of the river Cheta; and doubtless referring to the same species, Mr. Severtzoff writes (/. c. p. 86) : - " Very near to Oris nivicola is another, as yet not properly identified, Sheep from North Siberia, from the mountains which separate the basins of the rivers Nyjnaya and Tungasca, tributaries of the Yenisei, from that of the Hatanga and Piascina. Several perfect specimens of this animal were obtained by Mr. Schmidt's expedition for the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences." This species has by many naturalists been considered identical with Ovis montana of North America. W e have, however, no hesitation in considering it distinct from that species. In the extraordinary breadth and shortness of its skull Ovis nivicola differs most markedly from all the allied species. List of specimens examined. a. This specimen was brought by Colonel J. E. Gordon " from the Thian-Shan range towards Russian Turkestan" (in litti). It represents a remarkably fine adult male in winter coat. The fronto-orbital and fronto-nuchal edges of the horns are definite, the latter the most marked. All three surfaces very flat. |
