PRIMITIVE BREEDS OF SHEEP IN SCOTLAND 27 



descendants soon reverted to the original colour. Half the 

 Soay sheep are now black (I presume this means dark 

 brown), but are the same size and shape as the others, which 

 are brown (? pale brown). " Some of the brown sheep have 

 patches of black, and some of the black sheep have white 

 marks, especially on the face. Some of the brown sheep 

 have also white marks on their faces, but these are not 

 common. A number of the Soay ewes have horns, probably 

 about one-third. The horned ewes are not paler in colour. 

 The horns of the rams never form a complete circle." 



The ewes (Plate II., Fig. 2) usually lamb when a year 

 old, and often have twins. The older ewes as a rule have 

 twins each year. There are not less that 300 sheep on Soay 

 at present. It may be added that there is abundance of water 

 on Soay. 



The wool of the Soay sheep is very good and soft, but 

 difficult to spin alone, because it is so short. Most of it is 

 worked up with the wool of the other sheep, but some is spun 

 alone for gloves and socks. It never exceeds ih inches, 

 and is often only an inch long. To this I will add what 

 little I know about their breed in England. 



About twenty -one years ago the late Mr Assheton 

 Smith brought some of these sheep from Soay, and two or 

 three years later five ewes came from Macleod of Dunvegan, 

 owner of the island, which lived in his park at Vaynol, N. 

 Wales, till he died. Mr V. M. Lort, to whom I am indebted 

 for this information, bought most of the flock, and kept 

 them in a field at his home, crossing the rams with various 

 breeds, of which Manx and Southdown seem to have been 

 the most successful. He assures me that no ram but a Soay 

 was ever used at Vaynol, as I thought possible, because in 

 this flock the legs were longer, and the faces paler in colour 

 than those which I imported in 1910. But Ferguson's 

 evidence shows that there are pale or white-faced animals 

 among the Soay sheep. 



I saw Mr Lort's flock in 19 10, and noticed no dark brown 

 or hornless ewes among them. I bought two rams and seven 

 ewes, one of them a lamb, all of which were horned. I put 

 these in the same field with a dark-brown maned ram and 



