4 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



when really well fed, at four to five months old, is said to be 

 sometimes as much as this ; and in all these unimproved 

 breeds the growth of the lambs, as long as they are sucking, 

 is remarkably rapid during summer. 



As to the sheep of Papa Stour, I only know them from a 

 very diminutive animal, which is stuffed, in the Domestic 

 Animals Gallery of the Natural History Museum in London, 

 labelled as from " Papa, Orkney Islands " ; but I am assured by 

 Mr Gerrard, from whom this specimen was procured, that its 

 real habitat was Papa Stour, Shetland. If adult, as it seems 

 to be, this is the smallest sheep I ever saw, and looks more 

 like a freak than a distinct variety (see Plate II., Fig. i). 



During my visit to the islands I saw and learned a good 

 deal about the sheep which now exist, and which probably 

 have without exception some foreign blood, though the 

 hard conditions under which they live tends no doubt to the 

 survival of those which have most Shetland blood in them. 



With few exceptions they are kept on the worst lands 

 only, and as the grazings are common to a number of 

 crofters, most of whom are as much fishermen as farmers, 

 there is no selection of rams, some of which remain the 

 whole year wild in the cliffs. About the end of May drives 

 are organised in order to collect as many sheep as possible, 

 for their wool, which at that time is beginning to shed. But 

 as it will not all come off at the same time, the sheep are 

 gathered at intervals of a week or ten days, when the 

 weather is dry, into stone enclosures, when each crofter 

 plucks as much as will come off without force from his 

 own sheep. This practice entails a great deal of hunting 

 with dogs, which must be very injurious to the weak ewes 

 and their lambs. In the beginning of June I saw many 

 sheep which had lost part of their fleece, and a great deal 

 of shed wool was scattered about the hills. It seemed to 

 me that the practice of plucking has been kept up, because 

 there is a distinct break in the growth of the wool, similar to 

 that which takes place in England when sheep have been 

 ailing or starved ; and that when the new wool begins to 

 grow again in the spring it pushes up among the old wool. 

 In the. majority of the sheep that I examined I could not 



