A SUPPOSED SHEEP-GOAT HYBRID 



A Remarkable Skin Secured by a Trader from the Navajo Indians of Arizona 



FIGURE 8 shows a very remark- 

 able skin which has been received 

 from Mr. J. W. Bush, of Castle 

 Butte, Arizona. This skin seems 

 to partake of the characters of both the 

 sheep and goat. 



The color is a mixture of light brown 

 and white on the back, sharply distinct 

 from a very dark brown color on the 

 belly. The legs are largely dark brown 

 with, however, a streak of light brown 

 in front. Except for the irregular 

 areas of white on the back, the color 

 and pattern closely resemble the Bar- 

 bados sheep. A similar pattern occa- 

 sionally appears among Rambouillets, 

 as in a case described by L. L. Heller in 

 The Journal of Heredity, vol. vi, 

 No. lb (October 1915). 



The sheep of Arizona are very much 

 mixed in color. According to an esti- 

 mate, 1.5 to 20% are dark colored. The 

 color of the skin thus might well be 

 that of a sheep or sheep hybrid. The 

 brown color is also, of course, common 

 among goats. 



The coat is largely composed of short, 

 coarse hair. In many places there is 

 a soft, woolly undercoat. In small 

 patches on the shoulders, along the back 

 and on the belly, this wool has accumu- 

 lated in tangled mats. On the hind 

 quarters the wool becomes more hair- 

 like, but is much finer than the hair 

 in the same part of the coat, as well as 

 much longer, reaching a length of four 

 or five inches. The tail is entirelv cov- 



ered with fine hair or coarse wool of 

 this character. It is somewhat coarser 

 than Lincoln wool. Below^ is Mr. Bush's 

 account : 



"Under separate cover I am sending 

 you a hybrid goat-sheep skin. 



"The skin was presented to me more 

 than a year ago by Mr. E. J. Marty, who 

 is engaged as trader with the Navajo 

 Indians at Indian Wells, Arizona. . . . 



"This is the result of a cross between 

 a native (Mexican) goat and a sheep, 

 the original owner of which I have 

 been unable to locate, as the skin was 

 sold by some Indian without special 

 notice taken of it at the time. 



"I have shown it to many of our old- 

 est Indians and all say they have never 

 seen anything like it before." 



In view of the rather unsatisfactory 

 history, it can hardly be definitely af- 

 firmed that this is a sheep-goat hybrid. 

 Yet it seems unlikely that the patches 

 of wool could come from a goat, nor 

 could the coarse hair coat come from a 

 sheep. Sheep-goat hybrids are certainly 

 not common, and it has often been de- 

 nied that they can be produced at all. 

 They are occasionally reported, how- 

 ever. One such case was reported by 

 W. E. Spillman in the American Breed- 

 ers' Mogacine, vol. iv. No. 1 (1913). 



It is to be hoped that this question 

 of the occurrence of sheep-goat hybrids 

 will be settled by experiments which 

 leave no doubt in regard to parentage. 



357 



