Vol. XXV, pp. 109-110 June 29, 1912
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
A NEW SUBSPECIES OF MOUNTAIN SHEEP FlioM
WESTERN TEXAS AND SOUTHEASTERN
. NEW MEXICO.
BY VERNON BAILEY,
U. S. Biological Survey.
In my report on the mammals of Texas* I referred the
mountain sheep of the Guadalupe Mountains to Ovis mexicanus
Merriam, mainly on a comparison of external characters in the
old rams. Recently in taking the matter up more thoroughly
I have had occasion to compare series of female skulls and find
that they show excellent and very constant cranial characters,
which in the old rams have become partially concealed by the
excessive bone^growth and closely ankylosed sutures. In the
light of these facts it is now impossible to refer the sheep from
the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas and New Mexico to mexi-
canus and equally so to auduboni or canadensis, 1" and a sub-
specific name seems best to express its relationship. Its actual
relationship with typical canadensis will not be known until
much more critical work is done on the group with more
material than has been brought together. The best cranial
characters in mountain sheep arc shown by four- or live-year-
old females, and if collectors will bear this in mind and save
:it least as many females as males the future value of museum
material will be greatly increased.
Ovis canadensis texianus sul>s]>. nov.
Type from Guadalupe Mountains, Texas, 9 ad. skin and skull, 118,255,
I'. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collection, collected September
2, 1902, by Vernon Bailey. Original No. 7971.
*
Biological Survey of Texas. North American Fauna No. 25, U.S. Biological Survey,
Dcpt. of Agric, Oct. 24. 1905.
tin using the name canadensis instead of cervina lam Following tin' custom of the
Biological Survey in not rejecting a name in good current use for one without a definite
claim to prioritj .
20—Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XXV, L912. (109)
110 —Bailey A New Subspecies of Mountain Sheep.
General characters.—In size and general appearance very similar to
Oris mexicanus, but slightly darker in coloration, with facial part of
skull, nasals and— palate extremely
narrow.
Color. In specimen collected September 2, upper parts, except the
usual large white rump patch, dull huffy brown or soiled brownish gray;
nose whitish; rump patch pure white with medium dark line very narrow
and not continuous from tail to dark area of hack; belly white posteri-
orly; whitish lines down inner side of hind legs to hoofs, and down front
leys usually only to dewclaws (in the type reaching to the hoofs).
Cranial characters.—Skull long and narrow, with the heavy molars of
auduboni and mexicanus, hut different from all other species of the
United States and Mexico in the relatively narrow muzzle, nasals ami
palate in both sexes. Adult males with medium heavy pale yellowish
horns as in mexicanus, hut face more concave; upper molars arranged in
a nearly straight line. Adult female with long, thin, slender yellowish
horns, face less Hat and orbits more prominent than in mexicanus; upper
molar scries nearly straight, nasals— conspicuously long
and narrow.
Measurements. Type $, \yz years old, from dry specimen; total
length, 1530; tail vertebrae imperfect; hind foot, 355; ear from notch,
90; from crown, 100. Adult male, topotype No. 110,388, measured dry;
total lertgth, 1490; tail vertebrae 70; hind font, 370; ear from notch, 95;
from crown, 110.
Skull of type: basal length, 240; alveolar length of upper tooth row,
00; of lower tooth row, 02; width over orbits, L50; width at base of
horns, 100; greatest width of nasals, 35; width of palate between alveoli
of next to hind molars, 4i'. Skull of five-year-old male, topotype, No.
110,047; basal length, 270; alveolar length of upper tooth row, SO; of
lower, 01; greatest width of nasals, 48; of palate, 40; circumference of
horns at base of fourth annual ring, 345; at base of fifth annual ring,
300.
Remarks.—The skull of the female in this form presents the opposite
extreme from the conspicuously broad, flat face and nasals of merlon/ its
and presents another extreme of difference from the dark horns, light
and well arched molar series, small short nasals and wide rostrum of
canadensis ; it agrees with auduboni of the northern Badlands only in the
heavy dentition.