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Show 1885.] ROCKY-MOUNTAIN BIGHORN. 683 years later, he suppressed the name and returned to that of montana, which he also ascribes to Geoffroy, whose figure he again reproduces. In 1827 Hamilton Smith gave the name of pygargus to the Rocky- Mountain Sheep. The accompanying figure is certainly of the southern or heavy-horned species, but he gives no information about the animal. In 1829 Douglas gave the name of californianus to the Wild Sheep that inhabits "the subalpine region of Mount's Wood, St. Helens, and Vancouver, but is more numerous in the mountainous districts in the interior of California." He gives very exact measurements, one of which assigns a length of eighteen inches to the tail; but as he states that he never saw one alive, but founded his species on one good skin seen " about the great falls of the Columbia River," and as no species of Wild Sheep yet identified is known to have a tail approaching to this length, the name cannot stand. In the work on the Natural History of Central America now in course of publication by Messrs. Godman and Salvin, Mr. Alston has restored Desmarest's name of cervina, on the ground that the name of montana, which he assigns to Cuvier, was applied to the Rocky-Mountain Goat before Cuvier wrote. There appears no reason why the same specific name should not be used in both genera ; but as Shaw's name of canadensis was published long before Cuvier wrote, and before there is any proof of the name montana having been used by Geoffroy or by Schreber, it must have priority. The local name of Taye, which is sometimes given to museum specimens, is taken from MacGillivray's original account, and is apparently a misprint for Taje, which, according to Schott, in the U. S. Mexican Boundary Report, is the name used for the Bighorn by an Indian tribe in California. There appear to be no good reason for retaining so purely local a name. " My-attic " and " Ema-ki-ca-now " are also mentioned by MacGillivray as Indian names for the Bighorn. The most important references to the Bighorn are as follows:- 1803. Mountain Ram of North America, Mitchill, New York Repository, p. 237 (fig-)- 1803. Belier de Montaigne, E. Geoffroy de St.-Hilaire, Annales du Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, torn. ii. p. 360 (fig.). 1804. Ovis canadensis, Shaw, Naturalist's Miscellany, vol. xv. (%•)* 1817- O. montana, Cuvier, Regne Animal, torn. i. p. 267. 1818. 0. cervina, Desmarest, Nouveau Dictiomlaire d'Histoire Naturelle, vol. xxi. p. 553. 1820. O. montana, Desmarest, Mammalogie, p. 487 (fig-)* 1827- O. pygargus, Hamilton Smith, Cuvier's Animal Kingdom (fig.). 1829. O. californianus, Douglas, Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 332. 1829. O. montana, Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Americana (fig.). 1836. Der Amerikanische Argali, Schreber, Die Saugthiere, vol. p. 1367 (2 figs.). |