48 Report ujwn tlie Agricultural Features 



clip averages 4^ lbs. He took high honours in London in 1851 

 and Paris in 1867. 



European sheep have been relegated to four divisions. The 

 Merinos, which have occupied so much of our attention up 

 to this point, form a highly-cultivated variety of the species 

 Ovis aries. The only true aboriginal sheep present at the 

 Exhibition, according to Professor Wilhelm (' Wiener Landvvirth- 

 schaftliche Zeitung,' June 21), were examples sent by Herr 

 Philip Volcker, of Annweiler, Pfalz, Bavaria. They may be 

 •described as neatly-formed, middle-woolled sheep, hornless, with 

 black faces and white legs. Some were white and some black, 

 at the point of junction between head and neck. 



Herr H. Sprengel, of Schillerslage, Burgdorf, Hanover, showed 

 the only specimens exhibited of short-tailed sheep (^Ovis bra- 

 chi/ura). They figure in my notes as a small, sprightly, horned, 

 mountain race, with black faces and long brown wool, of a coarse 

 hairy quality, mingled with a fine down. They carry a top-knot 

 of shoi-t wool between the horns and on the forehead. They are 

 described in the catalogue as silver-grey heath sheep (^Haide 

 ■schmicke), and are from the Liineburg Common. These sheep 

 have received little attention, but the ease with which their wants 

 are satisfied renders them valuable in the great district of heath 

 land to which they belong. This tract, which is to be found on 

 the south of the Elbe, in the north-east of Hanover, is being gradu- 

 ally broken up and subjected to agricultural improvements per- 

 haps scarcely consistent with the prosperity of this hardy little 

 race. The British Blackfaced race, which also belongs to the 

 same ovine division, was not represented. 



AUSTKIA. 



The Austrian Sheep Show consisted of continuous pens of 

 Merino sheep, interrupted in a few instances by the occurrence of 

 English or mountain sheep, and a few English and other crosses. 

 The Rambouillet type of Merino almost entirely disappeared 

 here, giving place to the true Negretti and Electoral types. 



There were a considerable number of Cotswold and Merino 

 crosses, and a few examples of the pure breeds. It will be 

 noticed that Cotswolds had no place in the German section, 

 and further, it may be here observed, that no English races, 

 except Mr. Paget's Lincoln crosses from Transylvania, were to 

 be seen in the Hungarian department. 



The Moravian Sugar Factory Company, of Kcltschan, again 

 appeared as exhibitors by sending specimens of Cotswold- 

 Merinos, Cotswolds, Southdown-Merinos, Cotswold-Southdowns, 

 and what they call the " Keltschaner " race. 



