5 o THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



mouse-brown ; but Mr Bacon spells it according to the 

 pronunciation, loatyn. 



A more detailed account of this breed is found in Miss 

 Gosset's work, 1 most of it being communicated by Mr J. C. 

 Bacon of Santon, from whom I also have had much help and 

 valuable information, when I visited the island in 191 1. 

 It seems that the pure breed was gradually displaced by 

 Scotch and English breeds early in the last century, and 

 would perhaps have become extinct if it had not been 

 preserved first by an old farmer named Quirk, and later by 

 Colonel Anderson. Now there are only four small flocks on 

 the island, three of which Mr Bacon showed me. Colonel 

 Anderson, from whose stock most of Mr Bacon's originally 

 came, preferred the white colour, the faces tinged with 

 yellowish or dun, which was a common feature in the old 

 Manx breed ; but Mr Bacon as well as Mr Christian of Peel, 

 who has a few of these sheep, prefer the loaghtan colour, and 

 have bred for four horns, which are very well developed in 

 some of their rams. I have now a small flock selected in 

 the island, of which nine ewes and the old ram are loaghtan, 

 one black, and one white with a yellowish dun face. 



The brown ewes are in colour very like the Shetland 

 moorit sheep, but larger, with a heavier and slightly coarser 

 fleece. They are also distinguished by a paler topknot of 

 wool, which in the lambs appears as a white cap. Several 

 of my lambs, which were born black and turn brown as the 

 wool grows, have a white tip to their tail. 



The horns in the ewes are varied in form, some being 

 curled over at the top, and some curve outwards and back- 

 wards as in Black-faced ewes. This seems to be the best 

 type of horn in the female. I saw one ewe lamb with 

 four small but well-shaped horns. A ewe of this type is 

 figured by Miss Gosset, p. 65. In the rams the horns are, 

 so far as I saw, never of the Black-faced or Welsh type ; 

 but when there are four the upper ones stand high above 

 the head or curl outwards, the secondary horns curl down- 

 wards, and sometimes grow into the sheep's cheek, or so far 

 below his mouth that he cannot graze on short grass. 

 1 Shepherds of Britaift^ London, 191 1. 



