PRIMITIVE BREEDS OF SHEEP IN SCOTLAND 7 



they, although at a great distance, immediately betake them- 

 selves at full speed one and all to the shore, where they 

 continue until the tide begins to flow, when they as regularly 

 retire. In the old Statistical Account of Scot land, vol. xvi., 

 I find that the Rev. R. Sands, minister of Hoy, writing in 

 1795, savs : " About 1000 sheep are kept, which are annually 

 hunted into the rocks by dogs ; many lambs killed by eagles, 

 and sheep washed off by high seas when eating seaweed, no 

 care taken of them." 



I was informed by Mr Gordon's shepherd in Mid Yell, that 

 he had formerly herded on Hoy, where a flock of the original 

 breed, which he described as a small, black, rough-woolled 

 sheep, were kept, but that these had now all been removed 

 or crossed with Scotch sheep, and no longer exist there in 

 a pure state. 



The only islands which now seem to have anything like 

 the original breed are Flotta and North Ronaldshay. Of the 

 former, Mr J. Mackay informed Prof. Ridgway, when staying 

 in Orkney in 191 1, that he had kept one of the Flotta breed 

 for fourteen years. When he got it, it was so small that" the 

 shepherds disputed whether it was a lamb or full grown. It 

 was full grown, and produced fourteen lambs in the course of 

 thirteen years. Of the Ronaldshay flock he said that there 

 were about 500, which were kept by a high wall surrounding 

 the island from trespassing on the good land, and were con- 

 fined to the cliffs, where there is little to eat, so that they 

 subsist mainly on the seaweed which they get at low water. 



I have now procured a pair of these sheep through the 

 help of Mr Duncan Robertson, factor for the owner of the 

 island. They stand about 18 inches at the shoulder, and are 

 characterised by long, slender limbs, a fine head, and a short 

 tail. The male (Plate III., Fig. 1) has a fringe under the 

 throat, as in the Soay breed, and horns which curve backwards 

 between the ears, as in the Biindnerschaf of Switzerland. 

 These Ronaldshay sheep may have in part sprang from Ovis 

 arks palustris, the Bronze Age race with goat-like horns. 



The fleece of these sheep is white, brown, or spotted, but 

 the wool, though fine, is very inferior to the best Shetland. 



(To be continued?) 



