Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
By 1806
Primary Source Reference:
Richard Harlan, Fauna Americana: Being a Description of the Mammiferous Animals Inhabiting North America (Philadelphia, 1825), pp. 259-264 / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/3194376
Additional Source Text:
"Big-horn, Lewis and Clark"
Notes:
Harlan wrote that his description of the animal "is taken from specimens, male and female, in the Philadelphia Museum; on comparing which, with the descriptions and figures of the Argali of the old continent, not the slightest difference is observable."
Bighorn sheep were once known as "argali" or "argalia" on the mistaken assumption that they were the same animal as the Asiatic argali (Ovis ammon), and Harlan so identifies this animal using those common and scientific names. A critic of Harlan noted that he "is too ready to admit the identity of species of the new, with others of the old world." The North American Review, 22, no. 50 (Jan 1826): 120-136 (quote on p. 124)
John D. Godman described and illustrated this species in American Natural History. Part I. Mastology, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1826-1828), 2: 329-331 / https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.cu04828143?urlappend=%3Bseq=379%3Bowne… He wrote: "Two specimens of the argali, a male and female, were brought in by Lewis and Clarke, and may be seen in the Philadelphia Museum, where they are preserved. The engraving will give a good idea of these animals, though the specimens just mentioned, from which the drawing was made, are much injured by time and exposure to the dust."
George Ord described the skin and horn of the Rocky Mountain sheep sent by Lewis and Clark (which he called Ovis montana) in the Philadelphia Museum (and illustrated the horn) in "Account of a North American Quadruped, Supposed to Belong to the Genus Ovis," Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 1, part 1 (1817): 8-12 / https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24680241
See also the article "Bighorn Encounters" by Joseph Mussulman at http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/2899#toc-5
Specimen Type:
Dead/preserved
Peale's Scientific Name:
Ovis ammon (Harlan's and Godman's name)
Current Common Name:
Bighorn sheep
Current Scientific Name
Ovis canadensis
