404 Transactions. — MisccllaneoiLS . 



From this the Duke of Devonshire's and Lord de Tabley's 

 sheep appear identical — white spotted with black ; two straight 

 or slightly-curved upright horns, and two smaller horns bent 

 back round the ears and pointed under them to the front ; wool 

 scant and inferior; known to have been at Tabley two hundred 

 years. 



Sir H. Dryden's sheep, with similar markings, but probably 

 with only one pair of horns, twisted spirally as in the merino ; 

 wool of fair quantity and quality ; in the neighbourhood of 

 Canons Ashby over sixty j^ears. 



In the zoological collection at the Eoyal Park, Melbourne, 

 some fifteen years ago, I saw a ewe having short dark shining 

 red hair, having drooping ears and no horns, also a larger 

 sheep with long brick-coloured wool, which I supposed to be a 

 son of the ewe by a white-woolled ram ; probably Chinese. 



In England, the late celebrated novelist, Mayne Eeid, had 

 a flock which he describes as black with white face and white 

 tip to the tail, without horns, which he called Jacob's sheep. 

 He got the originals from a travelling mob, and had no know- 

 ledge where they were bred. He tried one season to show as 

 a curiosity at the Eoyal Agricultural Show, but was not 

 allowed, as "they were not a known breed." Afterwards he, 

 being indignant at their rejection, wrote a letter to the 

 Times about them. A supposed portrait of one was given 

 in the Live-stuck Journal, but it was coloured in black and 

 white patches. They were said to breed true. 



''Shetland Sheep. — At the last Eoyal Agricultural Show 

 was a pen of five miniature ewes of jet-black colour, which 

 were a great attraction to the visitors." — Live-stock Journal. 



Darwin, in " Variation of Animals and Plants under 

 Domestication," speaks of a famous breed of black sheep at 

 Karakool, Turkistan, with a valuable fleece of lustrous black 

 wool. The wool was said to deteriorate when the animals 

 were removed elsewhere.'" 



Dr. Eandal, in " American Sheep Husbandry," in describ- 

 ing the early attempts to introduce the merino slieep from 

 Spain to America, says, " The several small lots first imported 

 were allowed to die out, not being fancied at that time ; but 

 the very first, which with difficulty were obtained through 

 the influence of the American Ambassador to Spain, when 

 they arrived in 1803, were all black." I think five or seven 

 were the number landed. This was either a swindle in picking 

 a few black sheep from a white flock, or indicated a black 

 merino flock existing at that time. 



It is very remarkable that writers, in trying to trace the 

 origin of the merino sheep, always imagine them to be of 



• See " Travels in Bokhara," by Sir A. Burnes. 



