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Show 18S5.] ROCKY-MOUNTAIN BIGHORN. 679 The Wild Sheep are so puzzling a group, and slight variations colour and horn are so common among individuals from the same locality, that it is difficult sometimes to define different species. Specimens from the extreme north of the Rocky Mountains differ, however, so greatly from those procured in the United States, as to deserve future specific distinction, unless specimens from intermediate localities can be found to connect the two. All naturalists who have studied the Ovine group are aware of the confusion that has been caused in discriminating species, partly through want of accuracy in noting the exact localities whence specimens have been procured, and partly by the impossibility of collecting together for comparison a sufficient number of specimens. It was Mr. Seebohm, I think, who once classified naturalists as "lumpers" and " splitters." The Wild Sheep have suffered severely from both classes. Buffon and Pennant mention the Wild Sheep of Corsica, Sardinia, Tartary, Siberia, Kamtschatka, and California as varieties of the Mouflon. Schreber, under the specific name of Mgoceros argali, lumps up together the North-American, Siberian, and Thibetan Wild Sheep. Even so late as 1871, Blyth, writing to the 'Field' under the name of " Zoophilus," failed to distinguish between the Rocky-Mountain species and the Kamtschatkan species, O. nivicola. In the way of splitting, the Rocky-Mountain Bighorn, of which only one species has been recognized, had no less than five specific names given to it between 1803 and 1830. That there may be substantial grounds for separating the northern Bighorn from the southern species is shown by the difficulties that have been experienced by the British-Museum authorities in naming the North-American specimens now in their possession. Among the stuffed specimens exposed to public inspection are two from North America: the one from the Yellowstone River is labelled canadensis, which is the correct specific name of the Rocky-Mountain Sheep, supposing only one species to exist ; and the other, from Liard's River, is labelled nivicola or the Alaskan Wild Sheep, though the true O, nivicola is not found in America. In a corner of the same case is a specimen of 0. nivicola from Kamtschatka without any name on its label. There is also stowed away in one of the basement rooms a stuffed specimen in bad preservation, labelled canadensis. This is the specimen described and figured by Richardson in the ' Fauna Boreali-Americana,' and is identified by Mr. Nelson as belonging to the new variety which he has named after Mr. Dall. It is of the same type or race as the specimen from Liard's River, but is in its summer coat, whilst Dr. Rae's specimen is in its spring or winter coat. Comparison of these specimens will show how those from Alaska and British North America came to be classed as 0. nivicola. In a paper published in the Society's ' Proceedings' for 1875 by Sir V. Brooke an d his brother on the large Wild Sheep of Asia, it was pointed out that O. nivicola differs from the Bighorn in the shortness of its face and its great proportionate breadth across the orbits. There is another equally noticeable point of distinction in the colour of the hind quarters. 44* |