so-called black sheep of northern British Columbia
(_O. stonei_), described by Dr. Allen; Nelson's sheep of the
southwest (_O. nelsoni_) and _O. mexicanus_, both described by
Dr. Merriam. Besides these, Mr. Hornaday has described _Ovis
fannini_ of Yukon Territory, about which little is known, and
Dr. Merriam has given the sheep of the Missouri River bad lands
sub-specific rank under the title _O.c. auduboni_. Recently
Dr. Elliot has described the Lower California sheep as a sub-species of
the Rocky Mountain form under the name _O.c. cremnobates_. For
twenty-five years I heard of a black sheep-like animal in the central
range of the Rocky Mountains far to the north, said to be not only black
in color, but with black horns, something like those of an antelope, but
in shape and ringed like a female mountain sheep. From specimens
recently examined at the American Museum of Natural History, I now know
this to be the young female of _Ovis stonei_. That several species
of sheep should have been described within the last three or four years
shows, perhaps as well as anything, how very little we know about the
animals of this group.

The sheep of the Rocky Mountains and of the bad lands
(_O. canadensis_ and _O. canadensis auduboni_) are those with
which we are most familiar. Both forms are called the Rocky Mountain
sheep, and from this it is commonly inferred that they are confined to
the mountains, and live solely among the rocks. In a measure this belief
is true today, but it was not invariably so in old times. As in Asia,
so in America, the wild sheep is an inhabitant of the high grass land
plateaus. It delights in the elevated prairies, but near these prairies
it must have rough or broken country to which it may retreat when
pursued by its enemies. Before the days of the railroad and the
settlements in the West, the sheep was often found on the prairie. It
was then abundant in many localities where to-day farmers have their
wheat fields, and to some extent shared the feeding ground of the
antelope and the buffalo. Many and many a time while riding over the
prairie, I have seen among the antelope that loped carelessly out of the
way of the wagon before which I was riding, a few sheep, which would
finally separate themselves from the antelope and run up to rising
ground, there to stand and call until we had come too near them, when
they would lope off and finally be seen climbing some steep butte or
bluff, and there pausing f