White. — On Coloured Shee^j. 207 



letwiug; but, the siuTOundings not being favouiable, the 

 increase of the parasite was on so small a scale that the sheep 

 themselves were perfectly healthy ; and some of this impor- 

 tation of sheep must have lived to the age of twelve years or 

 more. This surely is good proof that the fluke-parasite pro- 

 created its kind without ever leaving its host, which is con- 

 trary to what science teaches ; for, if it or its eggs had once 

 left its host, the di-y nature of the pasture would have proved 

 unfavourable to fiu-ther development, and they would have 

 lost their vitality. Such an incident as this should be of 

 gi-eat interest, and its correctness may be fully relied on. I 

 never tried or saw this experiment performed on sheep bred in 

 New Zealand. 



My conclusions are that the weasel and stoat should be 

 the only enemies introduced, unless the black-footed ferret of 

 the prairies, mentioned by Sir -James Hector,'-' is devoid of 

 the knowledge of tree-climbing, which presumably it would 

 be, as those regions are mostly almost without timber. It is 

 possible this may be the small hardy, dark-coloured ferret I 

 used in England when a boy, which I was told was a cross 

 between the ferret and polecat, and which was obtainable in 

 England some forty years ago. 



[Since this paper was written I have turned up the follow- 

 ing in a book, " The Oxonian in Norway," written by the 

 Eev. Frederick Metcalf, M.A., second edition, published 1857. 

 page 87. After remarking on $3 being paid in Norway for 

 each pair of the claws of the golden eagle, he says, " Sm'ely 

 this is a more sensible aiTaugement than that of those num- 

 skull churchwardens of , wlio pay for sparrows' heads 



out of the church-rates, although a pair of them, while feed- 

 ing their young, destroy, according to Bulfon, four thousand 

 caterpillars weekly." Mr. Metcalf and Buffon side with the 

 sparrow ; but I certainly agree with the churchwai-dens. 

 There are plenty of real insectivorous birds: so there is no 

 need to rely on the doubtful aid of the sparrow.] 



Art. XXV. — Fuithcr Xotcs on Coloun'd ShcQ^J 



By Taylok White. 



[Read before the Hmokc's Bay Philosophical Socirty, 11th Aiojiist, liiui).^ 



Plate XXIIa. 

 T"HE sheep-breeder may say, "To what good purpose is the 

 consideration of peculiar or out-of-the-way forms of sheep, 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxii., p. 321. 

 t See vol. xxi., art. liii. 



