196 Sheep 



when knocking their heads together. When engaged in such a fight 

 they utter a kind of low grunt, and the noise ot the horns against each 

 other can he heard a long way off. They do not move about at night 

 except when disturbed. 



" One has to be very cautious when watching Ov/'s po//\ as they have 

 excellent sight and are wonderfully keen-scented. It they see anything, 

 they all stand looking at it, crowding against each other and striking the 

 ground with the fore-feet, often coming some paces nearer. All at once 

 one bounds away, all the herd follows, and betore long all stop again and 

 turn to look at what has disturbed them. Then they start again and stop 

 again, sometimes everv two or three hundred yards. . . . They nearly 

 always resort to the same places and the same nullas. Big herds always 

 consist of females and young males. When about five vears old the males 

 herd together in small parties of two or three, sometimes more, but scarcely 

 ever exceeding eight or ten. Once only I saw twentv-three. These herds 

 of males spend the summer in the highest and most remote nullas, but in 

 winter thev come lower down, and manv die of starvation in the spring, 

 when, after a bad winter, the food runs short. One can see on the ground 

 many heads of old individuals which died in the spring. In some places 

 thev are to be seen by dozens, and by the more or less decayed condition 

 of the horns and skulls one can guess how long they have been lying on 

 the ground. Durins: the summer there is not a sintjle big male to be seen 

 near those places where the horns are found, and it is evident that they 

 only come in winter. . . . When galloping they have a peculiar way of 

 keeping the head quite erect ; this is certainly due to the great weight of 

 the horns, which would be felt much more if the head were kept straight 

 out. All the same, they go very fast indeed downhill, and their gallop is 

 a long stride even when going uphill ; but I noticed more than once 

 what a peculiar stiff action they have in the shoulder, which is due to the 

 way they carry their heads." 



