ASIATIC WILD SHEEP.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13953, 13 July 1909, Page 7

ASIATIC WILD SHEEP.

FOR MOUNT COOK. T!ir:-e Baral sheep (Ovis Nahiira), -sent by tne Tourist. Department to Mount Cook, where they will he liWaicd.. arc one of the varieties <>l giaiit wild sheep whose home is Central and Nortln.ru Asia. Hand is one of the native names by which the sheep is known. The baral has a very extended range, reaching from j Ladak on the west to East Thibet. Its soutuern limit is the line of the Himalayas, and it extends north to the Kuenleu ranges. It seems to require an altiuude of at least 10.000 leet, and many of the shooting grounds are quite 17,<J00 feet above sea level, but it will not require such an al--titudo in Aew Zealand. The general colour is a light, slatey grey, and a fiiii-grown ram has black marks on the --ehust-3 side, and legs, and these are points to look for in a flock to dis- - Tfirgnish the sex. 'lhey arc therefore ditticult animals to se-; on a hillside among the rocks. The .three sheep I imjiorted consist of a young ram and j two ewes, one of the latter being apl pareutly a yearling, and the other ewe j Hiid rain can no to ne full grown. In \ build and size they are not unlike ; common goats, though longer in the : leg.. . Tuey are cevered with hair, though it is evidently their summer coot, having been bred in England, but the ewe lias some i>atches of • winter coat still upon her, and this has more the appearance of wool. It is questionable, whether it is wise to turn them out at present among the snow, though . no"" doubt they are hardy animals. The different varieties do not cross with one another any more than do the different varieties of antelope in Africa, though there is not a great deal of difference between some of them. A question that shcepowners will naturally ask is whether they will cross with our domestic sheep, but there does not appear to be the least likelihood of it. In books on Asia there is no mention of wild sheep ever mingling with the domestic flocks. An attempt has been made to ocross the American big-horn sheep in captivity with domestic sheep, but while mating was.successfully accomplished, the progeny would not live. The baral has not such fine horns as some of the varieties, such as the Ovis Poli, whose head forms the finest of all the wild sheep trophies, the " Badminton Library'' quoting specimens up to 75 inches in length, 54.V inches in spread friihio tip to tip, and girth at base up to 17 inches. The Ovis Amnion reaches 49 inches in length of horn, 32 inches between the tips, and the girth at base 20 inches. The longest horns of the Ovis Nahura (baral) given in the "Badminton Library" is 32 inches, and largest girth 14 inches. The horns of the baral lack the curls of the larger varieties,* and grow in a single curve. The i.orns of the young ram imported are 10 or j 12 inches in length, and those "f the f larger ewe four or five inches. —(Press.) j