1915] The Ottawa Naturalist. 93 



stead have found a dam amongst the wild species. The varia- 

 bility of the domestic sheep of the world is more marked. The 

 Africander fat-tailed sheep carries a tail which is frequently 

 found to w^eigh 50 pounds, trails on the ground, and is sup- 

 ported by the breeder with a contrivance on little wheels. It 

 is regarded as a delicacy, and is an important item in the mutton. 

 On the other hand, there is a breed of sheep in Central Asia with 

 a mere rudimentary tail, the fat natural to this part having ac- 

 cumulated on each side of the haunches in large protuberances 

 as if like the camel's hump they were nature's store against 

 future famine, which man takes advantage of and breeds out. 

 Darwin notices the Angola variety of the long-tailed race which 

 has similarly curious growths of humpy fat in the region of the 

 head. The multiplicity of varieties of the sheep and their ex- 

 tremes of peculiarity render the veriest reference to specially 

 interesting features out of the question in these notes. There are 

 in the museums of the world collections of mediaeval, modern, 

 and wild stocks, and in some of the European zoological collec- 

 tions a few living specimens. In the museums may also be seen 

 fossilized remains which carry us back to the very early geolo- 

 gical times in the earth's history. Although the ancestry of 

 the horse may be definitely traced to the most ancient primeval 

 epochs, that of the sheep still remains in obscurity. But it is 

 known that this important domestic animal appeared wild in 

 the tertiary epoch in company with the horse, camel, ox, hog 

 and elephant. This takes us back to about 2,500,000 years ago. 

 And according to authorities on the subject, there is ample evi- 

 dence that in the quartermary epoch of the earth's geological 

 age man had acquired some of the arts of agriculture. He had 

 domesticated the docile sheep, and afterwards the ox, the cat, 

 the dog, and the fowl. He had learned to dress hides, and had 

 accomplished primitive methods of weaving. And this period 

 is fixed as variously approximating 500,000 years ago. 



BEQUEST TO O.F.N.C. 





The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club is pleased to acknow- 

 ledge a bequest of $100 by the will of the late John Charles 

 Kearns. The late Mr. Kearns was a member of the Club for 

 many years, and always took a very keen interest in its work. 



The Council, at a recent meeting, decided to set this bequest 

 aside as an endowment fund, the interest from which could be 

 ffered as an annual prize bearing the name of the donor. 



G. LeL. 





A^ 



