(Oves Poli, Ammon, &c.)
In Central and Northern Asia there were at one time no fewer than eight recognised varieties of giant wild sheep, viz. O. Poli, O. Karelini, O. Heinsi, O. nigrimontana, O. Ammon, O. Hodgsonii, O. Brookei, O. nivicola.
Mr. W. T. Blanford, however, after inspecting a magnificent collection of heads, made by Hon. C. Ellis, which exhibit every gradation of curve between the two extreme types, declared in his paper to the Zoological Society in 1884 that he considered O. Poli and O. Karelini to be practically the same species, and the formidable list may be further reduced from a sportsman’s view by massing the varieties into three broad types, viz:
1. O. Poli with its little known varieties, O. Heinsi, and O. nigrimontana; for though these appear to differ somewhat in size (O. nigrimontana being a comparatively small animal), their horns are of the same wide-spreading type.
2. O. Ammon, O. Hodgsonii and O. Brookei; the difference between the first two is very trifling, and O. Brookei is considered by some authorities to be possibly a hybrid between O. Hodgsonii and O. Vignei (Shapoo).
3. O. nivicola, which more nearly resembles O. montana (the Bighorn of the Rocky Mountains).
The first type is found, according to M. Severtzoff, only in Turkestan, from the Pamir through the Thian Shan range as far eastwards as Tengri Khan; its varieties being located as follows: O. Heinsi in the Tockmack district west of Tengri Khan; O. nigrimontana in Karatan, near Samarcand.
The second type is not found in Turkestan. Its range is the Altai from Tengri Khan as far eastward as the sea of Baikal, and then southwards by the sources of the Hoang-ho and Yang-se-kiang rivers down to Ladak and the southern frontier of Thibet.
The third type is found in Kamtchatka.