l82 



Mutations 



Changing Plant and Animal Nature 



In 1 79 1 there appeared on a Massachusetts farm a freak 

 sheep which was remarkable for his very short legs and rel- 

 atively long body. The owner kept the ram and subse- 

 quently established an extensive flock of these short-legged 

 animals, not so much for their beauty as for the ease with 

 which they were kept within bounds. They were not good 

 fence jumpers. In the forties of the last century this Ancon 

 breed disappeared. In 19 19 an animal resembling our record 



Fig. 47. The Ancon Type of Sheep 



There are no descendants of the famous Ancon ram that appeared in Massachu- 

 setts in 1 79 1. The animal shown in the picture has the short legs and long body 

 of that sport, but it was born from apparently normal parents in Norway, in 19 19. 

 Photograph by Director of the Jonsberg Agricultural School, Norway. From Gruen- 

 berg, Biology and Human Life, published by Ginn & Company. 



of the Ancon sheep was born on a farm in Norway of ap- 

 parently normal parents. She gave birth to one daughter 

 of the same type (Fig. 47). The other descendants were 

 normal. The well established merino sheep is derived from a 

 single mutation that appeared in 1828. 



In former times the appearance of an individual that 



