Chap. Ill THEIR VARIATION. 99 



It is remarkable that multiplicity of horns "is generally 

 accompanied by great length and coarseness of the fleece." 79 

 This correlation, however, is far from being general ; for 

 instance, I am informed by Mr. D. Forbes, that the Spanish 

 sheep in Chile resemble, in fleece and in all other characters, 

 their parent merino-race, except that instead of a pair they 

 generally bear four horns. The existence of a pair of mammae 

 is a generic character in the genus Ovis as well as in several 

 allied forms ; nevertheless, as Mr. Hodgson has remarked, 

 " this character is not absolutely constant even among the 

 true and proper sheep : for I have more than once met with 

 Cagias (a sub- Himalayan domestic race) possessed of four 

 teats." s0 This case is the more remarkable as, when any 

 part or organ is present in reduced number in comparison 

 with the same part in allied groups, it usually is subject to 

 little variation. The presence of interdigital pits has like- 

 wise been considered as a generic distinction in sheep ; but 

 Isidore Geoffroy 81 has shown that these pits or pouches are 

 absent in some breeds. 



In sheep there is a strong tendency for characters, which 

 have apparently been acquired under domestication, to become 

 attached either exclusively to the male sex, or to be more 

 highly developed in this than in the other sex. Thus in 

 many breeds the horns are deficient in the ewe, though this 

 likewise occurs occasionally with the female of the wild 

 musmon. In the rams of the Wallachian breed, " the horns 

 spring almost perpendicularly from the frontal bone, and 

 then take a beautiful spiral form ; in the ewes they protrude 

 nearly at right angles from the head, and then become twisted 

 in a singular manner." 82 Mr. Hods-son states that the ex- 

 traordinarily arched nose or chaffron, which is so highly 

 developed in several foreign breeds, is characteristic of the 

 ram alone, and apparently is the result of domestication. 83 

 I hear from Mr. Blyth that the accumulation of fat in the 

 fat-tailed sheep of the plains of India is greater in the malo 



79 Youatt on Sheep, pp. 142-169.' 435. 



80 'Journal Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, 82 Youatt on Sheep, p. 138. 



r-'l. xvi., 1847, p. 1015. 83 'Journal Asiat. Soc. of Bengal,' 



81 'Hist. Nat. Gen., torn. iii. p. vol. xvi., 1847, pp. 1015, 1016. 



