ps, viz. Hollow-horned Ruminants (_Bovidae_),
and Solid-horned Ruminants (_Cervidae_). The deerlets possess no
psalterium or third stomach, except in a rudimentary form, and their
feet approximate to those of the pigs, and they are destitute of horns.
The hollow-horned ruminants are those which bear a persistent sheath
of horn on a bony core; the others bear solid antlers which are
periodically shed, and grow afresh.

FAMILY BOVIDAE--HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS.

In these there is an elongated process of bone on the frontals, termed
the "horn cores," which are covered with a horny sheath which is never
shed, but continues to grow till full adult life, and probably whilst
life lasts, the growth being from the base. In some of these the
females are horned, but the majority are hornless. These have all
the typical organs of rumination and digestion, and they consist of
the goats, sheep, antelope, oxen, and buffalos.

SUB-FAMILY CAPRINAE--GOATS AND SHEEP.

These are noted for having, as a general rule, horns in both sexes,
though of varying quality; they are usually compressed, triangular,
rugose, with transverse ridges, and curving backwards or spirally;
no canines. Feet pits in some; sub-orbital gland small or absent.

_GENUS OVIS--THE SHEEP_.

Horns in both sexes; in the male very large, angular, deeply wrinkled,
turned downwards in a bold circle, with the point curved outwards;
the nasal bones are arched; small feet pits; two mammae.

NO. 438. OVIS POLII.
_Marco Polo's Sheep_.

NATIVE NAMES.--_Rass_ or _Roosh_ on the Pamir; _Kuch-kar_ (male),
_Mesh_ (female), in Wakhan.

HABITAT.--Thian Shan mountains, north of Kashgar, and Yarkand, at
elevations exceeding 9000 feet.

[Illustration: _Ovis Polii_.]

DESCRIPTION.--During winter light greyish-brown on the sides of the
body, with a dark line down the middle of the back, white below. In
summer the grey changes to dark brown. The horns describe a circle
of about one and a quarter when viewed from the side, and point
directly outwards. One of the finest specimens I have seen, which
was exhibited at a meeting of the Asiatic Society in December 1879,
and is now in the Indian Museum, measures over sixty-seven inches
from base to tip along the curve, with a circumference at base of
sixteen inches and a width from tip to tip in a straight line of
fifty-three inches; one in the British Museum measures sixty-three
inches, but is wider in its spread, being fifty-fou