The SIBERIAN ARGALI is the characteristic wild sheep of the rocky hills and mountains of Southern Siberia, the Altai Mountains, and Northern Mongolia. The horns curve so as to form more than a complete circle; the upper parts are tinged with grey, and the lower are white.

The Sheep and Goats 223 The Tibetan ARGALI is a little smaller in size, and has slightly smaller horns. The rams have also a large white ruff on the throat. These sheep descend in winter to the lower valleys of the Tibetan plateau, returning to the higher ground in spring. The lambs are born in May or June. LirtLepaue’s SHEEP is a smaller animal, found on the Sair Mountains in the Great Altai, on the northwestern border of Mongolia. It is darker in colour than the argali or Marco Polo’s sheep, and has dark under-parts. Writing of the argali of Southern Siberia, the naturalist Brehm says that when the Tartars want mutton an argali hunt is organised. The Tartar hunters advance on their horses at intervals of 200 or 300 yards, and when the sheep are started generally manage, by riding, shooting, coursing them with dogs, and shouting, to bewilder, shoot, or capture several, On the high plateau of the Pamirs and the adjacent districts Marco Poto’s SuHeEep is found. The rams are only slightly less in size than the Siberian argali; the hair is longer than in that species, and the horns are thinner and more slender and extend farther in an outward direction. An adult ram may weigh 22 stone. The first description of this sheep was given by the old traveller whose name it now bears. He said that on the Pamir plateau wild animals are met with in large numbers, particularly a sheep of great size, having horns three, four, and even six palms in length. The shepherds (? hunters) form ladles and_ vessels from them. In the Pamirs, Marco Polo’s sheep is seldom found at less than 11,000 or 12,000 feet above the sea. In the Thian-shan Mountains it is said to descend to 2,000 or 3,000 feet. They prefer the hilly, grassy plains, and only seek the hills for safety. On the Pamirs they are said to be very numerous in places, one hunter stating that he saw in one day not less than 600 head. Photo by J. T. Newman) (Berkhamsted.

BARBARY SHEEP.

These fine wild sheep are found in the Atlas and Aures Mountains of North Africa. Tne Bighorn SHEEP OF AMERICA

AND KAMCHATKA.

EE ae eee EE SrA ewer [Regent's Park. Pras Seo Photo by W. P. Dando} North America has its parallel BARBARY SHEEP. to the argalis in the famous Brcuorn. This shows a fine ram, with a mane reaching almost to its hoofs. It is now very rare even in Northern

of the World224 The Living Animals

Canada, and becoming scarce in the United States, though a few are found here and there at various points on the Rocky Mountains as far south as Mexico. In habits it is much the same as other wild sheep that is to say, it " haunts the rock-hills and bad lands " near the mountains, feeding on the scanty herbage of the high ground, and not descending unless driven down by snow. The bighorn sheep are very partial to salt. Mr. Turner Turner, who hunted them in : " Wild sheep East Kooteney, says make periodical excursions to the mountain-tops to gorge themselves with salty clay. They may remain

Photo by J. W. McLellan] [Highbury. from an hour to two days, and BURHAL WILD SHEEP. when killed their stomachs will have a wide range both on the Himalaya and TheySometimes called the Blue Sheep. be found full of nothing but the mountains. of those north clay formed from denuded lime-cliffs, largestone, which they lick and gnaw until sometimes deep tunnels are formed in the enough to hide six or seven sheep. The hunter, standing over one of these warrens, may bolt them within two yards of him. In the dead of winter sheep often come to the woods to feed on fir-trees. At such times they may be seen mixed with black-and-white-tailed deer, low on a river-bank. I have known them come within forty yards of an inhabited hut."

While on the subject of the fondness of sheep and deer for salt, we may mention an anecdote told by Mr. H. C. Nelson in Country Life. He was sleeping with two other friends in a hut in the mountains where some miners had lived for a time. These men, when they washed up their pots and pans, threw the slops away at a certain place close by the hut. As all water used for cooking meat has salt put into it, a little salt remained on the surface. This the wild deer had found out, and were in the habit of coming to lick it at night. Mr. Nelson had a shot at one some twenty yards from the hut.

The bighorn sheep stands from 3 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 6 inches at the shoulder. The horns are of the general type of the argalis, but smoother. Another bighorn is found in Kamchatka. There is also a beautiful white race of bighorn inhabiting Alaska. The typical is browner than the Asiatic argalis, and in winter is dark even beneathRocky Mountain race the front parts of the body. It is not found on the high peaks of the great ranges, but on difficult though lower ground on the minor hills.

THE OORIAL.

The vast range of the Himalaya affords feeding-ground to other species of wild sheep and wild goat, so different in the shape of the horns that the variations of the ovine race is seen in nature.under domestication need not be matter for wonder when so much variety

The OORIAL, or SHA, is found in North-west India, on the Trans-Indus Mountains, and in Ladak, Northern Tibet, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan, and Southern Persia. The horns make a half-curve backwards, and are flattened. The angle with the horizontal line is of a reddish-brown colour, with whiteacross the ears is about half a right angle. The coat

is-on the belly, legs, and throat. This species has a very wide geographical distribution, and the only wild sheep found in India proper.

Photo by The Duchesx of Bedford, Woburn Abbe.y.

FEMALE KUDU.

The Kudu is one of the handsomest of the African Antelopes, the corkscrew-like horns of the bucks forming some of the most striking of all sporting trophies.

Photo by The Duchesx of Bedford, Woburn Abbe.y.

UNIV. OF

CALIFORNIA

The Sheep and Goats 225

THE BARBARY SHEEP, AOUDAD,

OR ARUI.

This is a large wild sheep of the North African highlands. The old rams have a very fine appearance, with a long flowing beard or mane, and large horns. These wild sheep, though somewhat goat-like in appearance, are typical of their race in general habits. They live in the Atlas Eange, and in the splendid heights of the Aures Mountains, which lie at the back of Algeria and fringe the great Sahara Desert. In the isolated and burning rocks which jut up in the desert itself into single mountains they are also found, living on ground which seems absolutely destitute of water, grass, or vegetation. They live singly or in small families; but the rams keep mainly alone. Sometimes they lie in shallow caves during the heat of the day. These caves smell like a sheep-fold. More generally the sheep repose on some shelf of rock, where they exactly match the colour of the stone, and

I'koto by J. T. Newman] [Bcrl-liafttstal. PUNJAB SHEEP. are invisible. The ground is among

This is an example of one of the breeds which carry no wool whatever. the most difficult in which any hunting is attempted, except perhaps in chamois-stalking; but the pursu't seems to fascinate sportsmen. Mr. A. E. Pease recently gave some charming descriptions of the silence, the rugged rocks, and the astonishing views over the great orange Sahara Desert seen from the tops of these haunts of the Barbary sheep mountains on the summits of which his Arab guides would prostrate themselves in evening prayer as the sun sank over the desert, and then, rising, once more resume the chase. The young lambs of the Barbary sheep are charming little creatures, more like reddish kids. They can follow the mother over the steepest ground at a great pace. When caught, as they Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S.] [North Finchley. sometimes are by the Arabs, PAT-TAILED SHEEP, tail of this sheep was considered by Charles Darwin as due to degeneration.they soon become tame. The The fat 29

of the World226 The Living Animals

tail is longer than in other wild sheep, and in the males a large mane covers the chest.

THE BURHAL, OR BLUE SHEEP.

This species possibly indi-cates the transition-point from the sheep to the goats. It was pointed out by Mr. Brian Hodgson that it had certain features more like the goats than the sheep, and later other writers laid stress on structural differences of the same kind, both in skull and horns. It has not the dis-

Photo by IK. f. Dando} [AV/../if* I FOUB-HOBNED SHEEP. agreeable odour of the goats; some from There are several breeds of these sheep, China, some from Iceland, and others from but the black markings which Africa. South separate the white of the belly from the brown of the flanks, and run down the front of the legs, are like those seen on some goats. The horns rise in a curve outwards and downwards. The largest are only some 30 inches long. 'Burhal are perhaps the commonest of all Asiatic wild sheep. They inhabit the whole length of the higher Himalayan Eange, and are found over and round the Central Asian plateau as far north as Yarkand. The horns make two half-moons at right angles to the skull. Unlike all. Much ofsome 'of the other wild sheep, burhal often climb the very highest ground of the best burhal ground is above 17,000 feet high, and, as Mr. Whitbread remarks, this alone makes the chase of such an animal difficult. As in the moufflon, the mutton is excellent. There is no difficulty whatever in taming these wild Himalayan sheep; those in the Zoological Gardens are practically domesticated.

DOMESTICATED SHEEP.

Under domestication sheep exhibit a wide variety of coat, shape, and size, very striking to the eye, and very important in regard to the produce of wool or mutton. The introduction of a particular breed, with long wool or short wool as the case may be, has often saved or altered for a time the economic condition of a colony or province. It was the introduction of the sheep which gave Australia first rank among the rich colonies of the world; and the discovery that the Cheviot breed would thrive on the Scotch hills made millions of acres remunerative which might otherwise have been very unproductive. But the only important change in the structure of the sheep in domestication is the lengthening of the tail. The carcase may be fat mutton or thin mutton, 'the wool long or short, fine or coarse; but the sheep itself remains true to type, and of Phol bv J- [Serklian much the same docile habits, under all the SOUTH DOWN SHEEP. finest breed of down-sheep. Changes of the breeders. The

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