428 



The Journal of Heredity 



THE LAST OF THE DANADARS 



Figure 31. These sheep are as pure Danadars as have been discovered in recent years, 

 and they are considerably contaminated with fine-wool blood. The Danadar was the original 

 fur sheep of Central Asia, but the pure breed became extinct nearly eighty years ago. 

 Photograph by the Dragoman PetrofF. Russian Embassy of New Bokhara. 



like curls, known in this country under 

 the trade name of Persian Lamb Fur. 



^lany of the Danadar sheep that 

 were in those sections of Bokhara lying- 

 close to the border of Afghanistan, the 

 home of the white fine wool Afghan 

 sheep, became in time gray. Mixture 

 of the Danadars with the fatrump 

 breeds resulted in the development of 

 various peculiar broad tailed breeds 

 which we find today in Central Asia. 



Those black Danadars that received 

 l)ut a slight admixture of the fatrump, 

 developed a tail resembling that of 

 half blood to three-quarter blood Kara- 

 kuls in this coimtry. 



No Pure Breeds in Central Asia 



The grade Danadar just discussed is 

 the sheep which Dr. Sinitzin found 



some forty years ago near the Lake 

 of Kara Kul where many Arabs were 

 engaged in sheep raising, and those of 

 their sheep that produced lamb skins 

 of greater value were called "Arabi." 

 In studying Sinitzin's description of 

 the Arabi, one encounters the same 

 characteristics as are found in the 

 black Danadar, except that the Arabi 

 turn gray at maturity which is not the 

 case with the black Danadar. Sinitzin 

 even speaks of the Arabi as being 

 ])ractically a longtailed sheep. It is 

 easy to understand why Sinitzin saw 

 more of the so-called Arabi than any- 

 one who visited Bokhara twenty to 

 twenty-five years later, since the na- 

 tives have for years made it a practice 

 to kill the lambs with the most valuable 

 skins. Some investigators realized that 



