OBSERVATIONS ON QUADKUPEDS. 
SHEEP, 
THE sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are very ragged, and 
their coats much torn; the shepherds say they tear their fleeces 
with their own mouths and horns, and they are always in that way in 
mild wet winters, being teased and tickled with a kind of lice. 
After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion and 
bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to distinguish 
one another as before. This embarrassment seems not so much to 
arise from the loss of the fleece, which may occasion an alteration 
in their appearance, as from the defect of that sotus odor, dis- 
criminating each individual personally ; which also is confounded 
by the strong scent of pitch and tar wherewith they are newly 
marked ; for the brute creation recognise each other more from 
the smell than the sight ; and in matters of-identity and diversity 
appeal much more to their noses than their eyes. After sheep have 
been washed there is the same confusion, from the reason given 
above.— WHITE. 
RABBITS. 
Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not only bite 
closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no bents to rise ; 
hence warrens produce much the most delicate turf for gardens 
Sheep never touch the stalks of grasses.— WHITE. 
DD 
