PRIMITIVE BREEDS OF SHEEP IN SCOTLAND 51 



These sheep seem to be very hardy, and in their native 

 island live on the poorest hill-tops ; they are also great 

 jumpers, and often have their fore and hind leg tied together 

 on one side, in order to keep them in bounds. But with wire 

 fences, sheep or rabbit netting, I have had no trouble in 

 keeping them in small enclosures, where they soon become 

 tame. 



The fleece of my young ewes, wintered on poor grass 

 only, in an English park, weighed 4 to 5 lbs. unwashed, and 

 was valued at about is. 6d. per pound. 



Prof. R. Wallace 1 gives an interesting account of the 

 result of crossing a brown four-horned Manx ram with 

 Black-faced ewes at Westown, Lanarkshire, by Mr J. 

 Greenshields, and figures the results of four successive crosses 

 on Plate cxxxix., and the fifth cross on the next plate. The 

 variation in the colour of the face and shape of the horns is 

 remarkable, but the prepotency of the horn character is 

 extraordinary, for though in the fourth cross the result was 

 like a pure Black-face except for the horns, yet even in the 

 fifth cross the horns were still four in number, and not the 

 least like those of a Black-faced tup in shape. 



Keerie or Rocky Sheep of Caithness. 



I first heard of the existence of an ancient race of sheep 

 on the cliffs of Duncansby Head in Caithness from Mr 

 Harvie-Brown, who saw a small flock of black, half-wild, and 

 very diminutive sheep which he called " Keeries," on this 

 remote spot about twenty years ago, though I can find no 

 mention of them in his Vertebrate Fauna of Sutherland and 

 Caithness. My further enquiries about them were unsuccess- 

 ful, until I had the good fortune to hear that Mr F. J. Sinclair 

 of Barrogill Castle had preserved a few of these sheep which 

 he calls " Rockies." I annex a precis of what he tells me 

 about them. 



The Rocky sheep were first seen in 1890 on Duncansby 

 Head, Caithness. At that time there were several small lots 

 1 Farm Live Stock of Great Britain, ed. iv., p. 521 (1907). 



