PRIMITIVE BREEDS OF SHEEP IN SCOTLAND 29 



With regard to the various crosses which have been and 

 are being made by Prof. Ewart, Mr Lort, and myself, with 

 other breeds, I will say nothing now, as the subject has 

 interest rather from an economic than a natural history point 

 of view. 



Hebridean Sheep. 



Most writers agree in supposing that the old Hebridean 

 breed was originally introduced from Norway, and some have 

 supposed that the wrecked ships of the Spanish Armada may 

 have brought some new blood, but we have no reliable evidence 

 on this point. I can get no exact description, specimen, 

 or figure of the aboriginal sheep which are said to exist on 

 some of the islands of southern Norway, 1 and it is probable, 

 indeed almost certain, that the breed now generally known 

 as St Kilda in English parks is a mongrel in which the Black- 

 faced Scotch has a considerable share. 



Early writers give little exact information, but in Martin's 

 Description of the Western Islands, 1703, p. 48, I find the 

 following : — " About a league to the north of Pabbay, lies the 

 isle of Sellay, a mile in circumference, that yields extra- 

 ordinary pasturage for sheep, so that they become fat very 

 soon. They have the biggest horns that ever I saw on 

 sheep." On p. 286 he says of St Kilda : — " The horses and 

 cows are of a lower stature than on the adjacent isles, but the 

 sheep differ only in the bigness of their horns, which are very 

 long." He says nothing about the sheep on Soay, or about 

 four-horned sheep. 



Walker 2 says : — " The Hebridean sheep is the smallest 

 animal of the kind. It is of a thin, lank shape, and has 

 short, straight horns. The face and legs are white, the tail 

 extremely short, and the wool of various colours ; for besides 

 black and white, it is sometimes of a bluish grey colour, at 

 other times brown, and sometimes of a deep russet, and 



1 Dr J. Walker, Economic History of the Hebrides, ii., 69 (1 812), says, 

 but I know not on what authority, that this native sheep of the Hebrides 

 and the Shetland Isles is exactly the same with what subsists to-day in 

 the Kingdom of Norway. 



2 History of the Hebrides, ii., 69 (18 12). 



