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What the relations of these different forms are to one another has not yet been determined, but it may be conjectured that Ovis canadensis, O. nelsoni, and O. dalli differ most widely from one another; while O. stonei and O. dalli, with its forms, are close together; and O. canadensis, and O.c. auduboni are closely related; as are also O. nelsoni, O. mexicanus, and O.c. cremnobates.
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.
These forms, with the localities from which the types have come, are as follows: Ovis canadensis, interior of western Canada. Ovis canadensis auduboni, Bad Lands of South Dakota. Ovis nelsoni, Grapevine Mountains, boundary between California and Nevada. Ovis mexicanus, Lake Santa Maria, Chihuahua, Mexico. Ovis dalli, mountains on Forty-Mile Creek, west of Yukon River, Alaska.
The sub-species auduboni is the easternmost member of the American sheep family, while the sheep of Chihuahua and of Lower California are the most southern now known. At many points in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas the Indians were formerly great sheep hunters, and largely depended on this game for their flesh food.
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