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Show 1880.] THE MAMMALS OF ASIA MINOR. 55 inches. Length of head 12*50 ,, ear .. 6*50 „ of antlers along curve 18*50 Span of antlers , 16*00 The general colour of this specimen was a dark greyish brown above with a darker line running along the back; the legs were fawn-coloured, and the belly pure white. Both in Rhodes and on the mainland the wild Fallow Deer show but faint traces of the white spots which are so characteristic of the park breed. In the former locality the form of the antlers is very constant; but a series collected in the Giaour Dagh are of very irregular shapes, extra points being commonly thrown out on the beam, and the pal-mation being very much less marked than in the normal type. 26. *CAPREOLUS CAPR^EA, Gray. Karadja. D. & A., no. 22. Appears to be very rare in the south, though occurring in the Giaour Dagh and in the neighbouring portions of the Taurus range. 27. *GAZELLA DORCAS (Linn.) Jairan. D & A., no. 23. Common all along the valley of the Pyramus, on the Plain of Ba-zardjik, the stony oak-wooded uplands on the right bank of the Euphrates, and in many other localities. Another Gazelle, which was reported to Danford as being found on the banks of the latter river, will probably prove to be G. subgutturosa. 28. *CAPRA .EGAGRUS, Gmel. Kayeek. D. & A., no. 24. 29. *Ovis GMELINI, Blyth. Kotch, Yaban-koyun. D. & A., no. 25. Dr. Alexander Straueh, Director of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, visited London in 1878, principally to examine the specimens of the genus Ovis in the British Museum, a group which he has made a special object of study. He was much struck with the form of the horns of a Cilician Wild Sheep's skeleton, obtained by Danford on his first expedition, and identified by us as 0. gmelini. These horns Dr. Straueh considered to be so peculiar as to indicate specific distinction from both the Armenian O. gmelini and the Cyprian 0. ophion; and, at his suggestion, we have been led to reconsider the question of its identity. On comparing the horns of the skeleton in question, that of an adolescent male (figs. 3, 6), with those of the types of Blyth's Q.gmelini, also in the national collection (figs. 1, 4), the differences are, indeed, so striking that it is difficult to believe that the animals can belong to the same species. In the Cilician Sheep the terminal portion of the horns are bent boldly upwards, so that their curves strongly resemble those of O. ophion. Their sculpture is large but ill-defined, the fronto-nuchal and fronto-orbital edges1 are well marked but rounded; and both the orbital and nuchal surfaces are flat at the base and then slightly concave. 1 W e employ these terms as defined by Sir Victor and Mr. Basil Brooke, P.Z.S. 1875, p, 511. |
