330 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



crossing domestic cattle with the buffalo, but probably no 

 permanent result has been reached. 



The domesticated races of sheep seem to have had three 

 original wild sources, Ovis musimon of South Europe, Ovis 

 arkal of Western Asia, and Ovis tragelaphus of North Africa. 

 Most of our present European and American races come from 

 the second named of these wild kinds. The earliest certain 

 remains of tame sheep appear in the Stone Age. In the Bronze 



FIG. 144. Typical American Merino ewe, a highly specialized breed of 

 sheep, with fine, close-set wool. (After Shaw.) 



Age sheep domestication was well developed. The oldest 

 Assyrian drawings picture domesticated sheep, among which 

 the still persisting fat-tailed race appears. The Egyptians had 

 domesticated sheep in the times before the Pharaohs. 



Our goats also are descended from three wild races, namely, 

 Capra cegagrus of Western Asia, Capra falconeri and Capra 

 jemlaica of the Himalayas. The earliest prehistoric indications 

 of tame goats come from the times of the Lake-dwellers. In 

 the Bronze Age they were common. 



