2 on breeding Jheep. March f. 



OBSERVATICfNS ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF SHEEP. 



Sir, To the Editor of the Bee. 



Of all domestic animals, the fheep is surely the most 

 worthy of our notice, in that it supplies us with both 

 food and raiment. That there is more of both produ- 

 ced by some kinds of them, with the same keeping, 

 than others, and that too of a superior quality, few 

 people at this day will dispute ;. by consequence, it is 

 the businefs of every breeder of ftieep to inquire 

 where that kind is to be found in the greatest perfec- 

 tion, 



Mr Bakewell's breed has for many years been 

 thought to stand foremost of the long-wooUcd kind ; 



fig tree, and he prefers thit which happens to overhang a well or rivulet. 

 He makes it of grafs, which he weaves like cloth, and (hapcs like a bottle, 

 suspending it firmly to the branches, but so as to rock with the wlndf 

 and placing it with its entrance downwards, to secure it from birds of prey. 

 His nest usually consists of two or three chambers; and it is the popular 

 belief, that he lights them with fire-flics, which he catches alive at night, 

 «nd confines with moist clay, or with cow dung. That such flies are 

 often found in his nest, where pieces of cow dung are also stuck, is un- 

 dubltable; but as their light could be of little use to him, it seems pro- 

 bable thjt he only feeds on them. 



" The baya feeds naturally on grafshoppcrs and other insects, but will 

 subsist, when tame, on pulse macerated with water: His flefli is warm 

 and drying, of easy digestion, and recommended inmedical books as asol- 

 vent of the stone in the bladder or kidneys; but of that virtue there is no 

 sufF.cient proof. The female lays many beautiful egg: rcsemblirg large 

 pearls ; the white of them, when they are boiled, is transparent, and ihi: fla- 

 vour of them is exquisitely dcTrare. When m.->ny ^tfj'as are afserribled on 

 3 high tree, they make alively din, but it is rather chirpirg than singing : 

 'J'heir want of musical talents is, however, amply supplied by their won- 

 «lcrful sagacity, in whjch they are not excelled by any feithtred inbab'.taxU: 

 •f the forett." 



