The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

684. THE NUMEROUS VARIETIES of sheep inhabiting the different regions of

the earth have been reduced by Cuvier to three, or at most four, species: the _Ovis Amman_, or the Argali, the presumed parent stock of all the rest; the _Ovis Tragelaphus_, the bearded sheep of Africa; the _Ovis Musmon_, the Musmon of Southern Europe; and the _Ovis Montana_, the Mouflon of America; though it is believed by many naturalists that this last is so nearly identical with the Indian Argali as to be undeserving a separate place. It is still a controversy to which of these three we are indebted for the many breeds of modern domestication; the Argali, however, by general belief, has been considered as the most _probable_ progenitor of the present varieties.