r inches across
at the tips. Major Biddulph, who presented the head to our museum,
remarked that the strength of the neck muscles must be enormous to
allow of so great a weight being easily carried, and it was doubtless
owing to this weight that the _Ovis Polii_ and other great sheep that
he had observed had a very erect carriage, which has also been noticed
by others of the _Ovis Ammon_.

I have never seen this animal in the flesh, and can only therefore
give what I gather from others about it, which is not much, as it
is not very well known.

SIZE.--Stands nearly four feet at the shoulder.

In the article on Asiatic sheep by Sir Victor Brooke and Mr. B. Brooke
in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' in 1875, there is an
excellent series of engravings of horns of these animals, amongst
which are two of _Ovis Polii_. The description of the animal itself
appears to be faulty, for it is stated that around the neck is a pure
white mane, whereas Mr. Blanford wrote to the Society a few months
later to the effect that he had examined a series of skins brought
from Kashgar, and found that none possess a trace of a mane along
the neck, as represented in a plate of the animal, there being some
long hair behind the horns and a little between the shoulders, but
none on the back of the neck. The animal has a very short tail also--so
short it can hardly be seen in life. According to M. Severtzoff there
is a dark line above the spinal column from the shoulders to the
loins; a white anal disc surrounds the tail; this disc above is
bordered by a rather dark line, but below it extends largely over
the hinder parts of the thighs, shading gradually into the brown
colour of the legs. The light greyish-brown of the sides shades off
into white towards the belly.

[Illustration: Horns of _Ovis Polii_.]

He gives the following particulars concerning its habits: "It is not
a regular inhabitant of the mountains, but of high situated hilly
plains, where _Festuca_, _Artemisia_, and even _Salsolae_ form its
principal food. It only takes to the mountains for purposes of
concealment, avoiding even then the more rocky localities. It keeps
to the same localities summer and winter. Its speed is very great,
but the difficulty in overtaking wounded specimens may be partly
attributed to the distressing effect of the rarefied air upon the
horses, which has apparently no effect whatever on the sheep. The
weight of an old specimen killed and gra