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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CAVICORNIA.

371

Now, Anau lies just at the foot of the Kopet Dagh and within the area of distribution of Ovis vignei arkal; it is, therefore, most probable that we have to do with the remains of a mountain sheep still living in the Kopet Dagh and not with those of an inhabitant of the broad steppes of Persia and Asia Minor. We can, therefore, reasonably exclude the Ovis orientalis, i. e., the steppe form of the wild sheep, from further consideration and say logically that we have before us Ovis vignei arkal Lydekker. As I am not able to give a direct comparison of our horn-cores with the original skulls of the Kopet Dagh sheep in the British Museum,

I shall take for comparison two skulls of Ovis vignei that are preserved in Berlin and London, and shall contrast them with the measurements of the Ovis ophion of Cyprus and the Persian Ovis arkal seu orientalis. From these measurements it results that the agreement is closest with Ovis vignei cycloceros of the Punjab, and that the difference in dimensions of the two recent Ovis vignei skulls from Ladak and the Punjab is more noticeable than that between the skulls of Anau and all the others here brought into comparison with them.

Table of dimensions (in millimeters).

*Measurements taken on the horns, and not on the horn-cores.

It is clear that we have here a wild sheep that corresponds excellently well with the Ovis vignei. The horn measurements given by Lydekker for the Ovis vignei of the Kopet Dagh, if applied to the horn-cores in the manner followed with the skulls already mentioned, would correspond to a longitudinal diameter of about 7o mm. and a transverse diameter of about 54 mm., and would, therefore, agree very closely with the horn-cores of the Anau wild sheep from the culture period I a in the depth of — 15 feet.

Punjab.
Ovis
viones
cycloceros,
Mus.
Berlin.

Cyprus.

Ovis
ophion,

Mus.
London.

Ladak. Ovis vionei, No. 666, London.

Persia . Ovis arkal, Mus. Paris.

North Kurgan. Arrau.

Skull.

—21 feet.

—15 feet.

+ 26 feet.

Greatest width of frontal bones   

Least width of saine   

Front line between base of horn-cores   

Back line between base of same   

Greatest width of occiput   

Least width of same   

Greatest height of same   

Least height of same   

Greatest width of parietals   

Least width of same   

Parietal height   

Longitudinal diameter of horn-base..    

Longitudinal diameter of base of

horn-core   

Transverse diameter of base of horn . .    

Transverse diameter of base of horn-

core   

Circumference of horn-base   

Circumference of base of horn-core   

Length of horn-core   

Distance between joints   

i27

94

17*

89*

78

51

56

42

82

51

33

77

52

44

32

195

175

220

360

125

93

22*

103*

79 6o

64

47 8o

54

33 7o

54

57

42

205

18o

134

98

~5*

I18*

88

58

546

4

83

55

37

85

58

58

.l1

200 18o

70

53

200

67

43

I70

145

III

18*

133*

96

62

64

52

89

6o

3o

95

63

69

44

200

18o

I25 95 23 73 83 55 54 43 91 57 3o

62

45

I 8o 25o

310