^4 ^^^ Irish Naturalist, July, 



County Wicklow where it had established itself apparently 

 from time mime mo rial. This sheep has been described as 

 having a small head, narrow face, and short, round, and 

 pricked ears. The head and face were smooth and covered 

 with short hair, the wool extending only to the junction 

 between neck and head. It had a long neck, but the general 

 proportions were good except that it was rather too slender. 

 The legs were small and clean and not very long. The tail 

 had remarkably coarse hair, even more so than that of the 

 long-woolled sheep. The fleece w^as coarse or wavy and 

 occasionally matted, yielding from two to three lbs. of wool 

 with a fibre of about two inches in length. The w^ool of 

 this sheep was largely used in the manufacture of flannel 

 of which much was made at Rathdrum. An anonymous 

 writer who signs himself " Agricola " wrote^ in 1806 that 

 this Wicklow short -woolled breed was generally known as 

 the " Cottagh Sheep " and that the Bradys of Glenmacnass 

 kept large flocks of the pure-blooded stock. 



Lydekker^ writes as if the Wicklow sheep were still 

 living, whereas it has long since been crossed out of existence. 

 What was the general distribution of this race in Ireland ? 

 That is one of the questions to w^hich we should like an 

 Answer. Youatt* maintains that a similar breed occurred 

 in Galway, particularly in the Connemara mountains. It 

 seems to have been crossed there earlier than in Wicklow 

 with the English South Down breed and the Spanish Merino. 

 He tells us that the mountains of Kerry also produce a 

 breed of small- woolled sheep. But according to Low^ the 

 Kerry sheep were larger than the Wicklow. The horns were 

 small and crooked and occasionally absent in the female, 

 while the wool was coarse on the haunches and fine on the 

 sides. The tendency of these sheep to become black wdll 

 be aUuded to again later on. 



^Agricola — " Essay on the properties of neat Cattle, Sheep, and 

 Swine." Trans. R. Dublin Society, voL v., 1806. 



^ Lydekker, R. — " The Sheep and its Cousins." London, 1912. 



* Youatt, W. — " Sheep, their breeds, management and diseases." 

 London, 1837. 



^ Low, D — " On the domesticated animals of the British Islands." 

 Tx>ndon, 1845, 



