196 Transactions. — Zoology. 



lO^d. per pound, which was equal to Is. a pound for white 

 wool, because the latter is always skirted and classed, whereas 

 the black fleece was rolled up just as taken from the sheep's 

 back, the belly-pieces being also left in. As Mr. McWhirter 

 says, the unskirted black wool sold for equal value to the 

 samples or bales containing his best skirted white wool. For 

 example, white wool divides, when skirted by the roller at the 

 wool-table, thus: Belly pieces, sa,y, 6d. per pound; first pieces, 

 8d. per pound ; stained pieces, 5d. per pound ; the remaining 

 fleece, Is. per pound ; fragments or locks, 4d. per pound. 

 Now, all these inferior portions were included in the black 

 fleece, unsorted, and realised 10M. per pound. 



The Queensland Agriculhiral Journal gives an account of 

 a black merino flock of sheep owned by Mr. Allan, of Brae- 

 side, Queensland, which was started twenty-two years ago. 

 Mr. Allan noticed that in spite of drastic culling black sheep 

 occurred in all flocks, and was struck with the idea that possibly 

 sheep were originally black. To test this theory he put pure 

 merino sires to black merino ewes, and found that right from 

 the initiation the experiment was a complete success, the 

 lambs dropped being all black. An almost universal charac- 

 teristic of these sheep is a small white spot on the forehead 

 and another on the tip of the tail. Mr. Allan continued to 

 breed from black sires and ewes for many years until the 

 flock reached 2,000, at which it remained for some years. It 

 has now been reduced to 20 rams, 600 ewes, and 250 wethers 

 and weaners — a total of 870. The blackness of these sheep 

 does not stop at the wool, but extends to the skin also, and 

 Mr. Allan makes it a sine qiia non that the tongue and the 

 roof of the mouth should be black as well. The flesh of the 

 animal is darker in colour and sweeter than that of the white 

 sheep, and has a distinctly " gamey " flavour, akin to the 

 taste of venison. It is thought that these sheep are much 

 hardier and less liable to disease than the white ones. At the 

 London sales in 1885 Braeside black wool brought Is. 6^d. per 

 pound for the fleece all round in the grease — that is to say, it 

 realised just double what white wool of a similar character 

 grown on the same country brought at that date. The black 

 wool was principally used at that time — and still is— for 

 undyed underclothing under Dr. Jaeger's system ; also, there 

 is a demand at times for black wool for certain continental 

 religious orders who have to wear undyed woollen clothing. 

 Latterly it fell in price through successful dyed imitations 

 being used. Last December the Braeside black wool brought 

 lOJd. in Brisbane for the fleece. The black sheep cut from 

 ^ lb. to f lb. less wool than the white ones. There is less yolk 

 or grease in the black wool, and hence there may be equal 

 bulk of wool-fibre to compare with a white-woolled fleece of a 



