| OCR Text |
Show 1896.] MR. W. T. BLANEORD ON OVIS AMMON. 787 Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., exhibited, on behalf of Major C. S. Cumberland, four heads of Ovls amnion (L.) from the North-west Altai, east of Semipalatinsk, in Central Asia (about lat. 50° N., long. 88° E.). Major Cumberland, during the summer of the present year, had succeeded in shooting seven fine rams, and the horns brought back by him far excelled any belonging to this species that had previously, so far as was known, been seen in this country. Of the largest pair, which had been presented by Major Cumberland to the British Museum, each horn measured 18| inches in circumference at the base, and 5 6 | inches in length round the curve; whilst the horns of another pair measured 19f inches round the base, though only 5 4 | long. Evidently this animal exceeded the great Tibetan Sheep, 0. hodgsonl, in size, and was the largest of all living Sheep. Head of Ovis ammon, from Major Cumberland's specimen in the British Museum, The heads now exhibited entirely confirmed the view that 0. ammon must be regarded as a distinct species from 0. hodgsonl. As had been first pointed out by Sir Victor Brooke and M r . Basil Brooke,in the 'Proceedings' of the Society for 1875,pp. 518-520, tbe horns in 0. amnion were thicker and longer and curved much more outwards towards the ends, and were thus intermediate in curve between 0. hodgsonl and the form of 0. poll called 0. karelini by Severtzoff. 0. ammon, moreover, wanted the ruff or lengthened hair on the sides and lower surface of the neck that is found, apparently at all seasons, in adult rams of 0. hodgsonl. The rams shot by Major Cumberland iu summer were very pale- |
