CoLENSO. — Bush Notes. 485 



to know their own proper mother; yet they generally, if not 

 invariably, manage very well on such occasions. Sometimes, 

 however, in my going among them at this season (in my 

 crossing the large level plain lying between Dannevirke and 

 the woods on the Mangatera Eiver), taking care to disturb 

 them as little as possible, I have fallen in with a lonely pair 

 of little lambs, twins (as is not unfrequently the case), who 

 have somehow missed their dam, and then they are sure to 

 make up to me, keeping step in their walking, and time in their 

 little juvenile bleating. They follow at my heels, and come 

 close up if I stand still, and look up and bleat so very affect- 

 iugly, as if they said, " Where is our mother?" or " We want 

 mother." There wtxs no mistake about it — no misunderstand- 

 ing them. It has pained me more than once to have to drive 

 them off from continuing to follow me like little dogs when I 

 could not find their dam, fearing they might go further astray. 

 Sometimes I have endeavoured to find their dam for them, and, 

 I own, not always with success ; but wdien I have done so, and 

 got the little family together, their joy was great and very 

 apparent. In placing them, however, with the wrong mother, 

 though apparently without a lamb by her side, she would not 

 adopt them nor allow them to come near her ; and this, I 

 think, they also well understood, as they would soon leave 

 her and again come after me, bleating plaintively and looking 

 so desolate ! I have sometimes seen (but riirely) a ewe with 

 three little lambs, triplets, at a birth. A very young lamb 

 presents a rather curious appearance, for I have always noticed 

 that the wool on its legs from the knees downwards was of a 

 much lighter colom-, perceivable also from a distance ; its tail, 

 too, being naturally long tends to alter its appearance, espe- 

 cially when frolicking. Another interesting feature is noticeable 

 and striking in seeing the twin lambs lying down lovingly and 

 close together sleeping in the sun, often in some grassy de- 

 pression, or under a tuft of the common fern, their dam being 

 some distance off grazing; and then, when disturbed in their 

 nap by my approach, at first merely raising their little heads 

 and looking around and stretching their legs, but afterwards 

 rising and seeking their dam with noisy and quick bleats, and 

 she, too, answering her childi-en, their graduated cries no doubt 

 being well understood between them. 



Sheep have often been called silly stupid animals, and 

 this from primitive thnes ; hence we meet with such a descrip- 

 tive line as this in the ancient comic Greek poet, Cratinus, — 



Aud, like a stupid sheep, go crying, " Ba !" 



Yet I have on different occasions noticed pleasing instances 

 of their sagacity. One of them I will give : In those open 

 plains already mentioned (as well as in many other similar 



