416 RECORDS OF BIG GAME 
DOMESTICATED SHEEP (Ovis aries). 
The history and ancestry of the various breeds of domesticated 
sheep are lost in the mists of antiquity, and naturalists are unable to 
point with certainty to the wild stock from which any or all of them 
are derived. This is the more to be regretted, seeing that the Swedish 
breed is the type of the genus Ow7s. Most domesticated breeds differ 
from wild sheep by the woolly nature of their coat; but since hairy 
tame sheep are met with in Africa and elsewhere, this point of 
difference is of comparatively little importance. More weight has 
been attached to the length of the tail, which may be longer than in 
the arui; but in some of the more primitive breeds like that of Soa, 
and also in the Indian Hunia sheep, this appendage is comparatively 
short, and its length in other breeds is probably due to a kind of 
degeneration. If this be really the case, the ancestry may be looked 
for among the mouflons or urial or some allied extinct form, since the 
horns of most breeds approximate to the mouflon-type. In many 
breeds, Dorsetshire, for example, the females are horned ; and four, or 
even five, horns occur in the males of certain breeds. Some eastern 
sheep, like the Wallachian, have departed from the mouflon-type by the 
development of upright corkscrew-horns comparable with those of the 
markhor, but intermediate forms occur in Hungary. 
Length on Cireum- 
outside curve. ference. Tip to Tip. Locality. Owner. 
454 9 15 Scotland . ' . J. A. H. Drovght. 
304 8} 21 ? H. E. Surtees. 
37 8} 20 Loch Awe, N.B. . H. Murray. 
37 ot 14 Scotland . : . Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bart. 
354 8 16) ? Sir Victor Brooke’s Collection. 
354 Si 24. Dorset : : - Hon, Walter Rothschild. 
33 II 22} Yarkand . : - British Museum (Hume _ Collec- 
; tion). 
228 oh 20} Do. 3 r . British Museum (Hume Collee- 
tion). 
18 8} 16} Fezzan ; - - British Museum. 
104 6 9 Faroe Islands. . K. J. Cuninghame. 
- Owner's measu rements. 
