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Show 1895.] ON THE OCCUEEENCE OF THE BAEBAEY SHEEP IN EGYPT. 85 3. On the Occurrence of the Barbary Sheep in Egypt. By P. L. SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. [Eeceived January 11, 1895.] Although Geoffroy St.-Hilaire is stated to have brought to a specimen of the Barbary Sheep (Ovis tragelaphus), obtained near the city of Cairo (Savigny, Description de l'Egypte, vol. ii. p. 742 (1812), Mammif. pi. vii. fig. 2 (1809)), 1 have always supposed that some mistake had occurred as to this locality ', as until recently I knew of no modern authority for its being met with, except in Morocco Algeria, and Tunis. As regards Tripoli I have no certain information, but I have been informed that a Wild Sheep is found in the interior of that country. Last summer, therefore, I was rather surprised when I wras told by Major Talbot, R.E., of the Intelligence Department, who had lately visited the frontier of Egypt at Wady Haifa, that several specimens of a Wild Sheep had lately been obtained on the banks of the Nile in that district. Major Talbot w-as kind enough to refer me to Capt, J. G. Dunning, who had been for some time stationed at Wady Haifa, for further particulars, and Capt. Dunning, at my request, supplied me with tbe following notes :- " During the summer of 1890 a herd of some 13 Sheep, according to native accounts, were continually seen in the neighbourhood of Semneh, some forty miles south of Wady Haifa on the Nile, and on the east bank of that river. Several of these Sheep were shot by natives and brought into Haifa, the head sent from Assouan and the horns now at Mr. Rowland Ward's belonging to two of those shot. " These Sheep had not been seen in that neighbourhood before, and have not been seen since, and it is possible that the drought which obtained in the Atbai very generally from the years 1886-91 forced these animals down to the Nile, as the water-holes and pools became dried up. " They are supposed to come from the neighbourhood of Gebel Hisse (or Isse), some 60 miles to the S.W. of the Elba mountains. This mountain of Hisse or Isse is presumably tbe head of the Wady Allaki, which falls into the Nile some 40 miles north of Korosko." Capt. Dunning, moreover, informed me that he was expecting to receive from Assouan a head of this Sheep, which would be at my service for examination. This, I am sorry to say, has never reached me, and, as Capt. Dunning has gone to Uganda, I have not 1 There seems to be no doubt that the Earbary Sheep is represented on some of the ancient monuments of Egypt (see Ammotragus tragelaphus in Dr. E . Hartmann's article on the Animals, figured by the Ancient Egyptians on their sculptures, in Brugsch's Zeitschr. f. Agyptische Sprache u. Alterthums, ii. p. 23), but many non-Egyptian animals are figured in these drawings. |