198 account of the fat rumpedjhcep. ■^'Jg- ^4. 



the curious facts he has brought together, are : . 

 That much depeisds on the (kill and ca''t of the fliep- 

 herd, to meliorate the wool of his flock, and correct 

 the form of his ftitep 'Cvhen defective: naj, he afserts 

 thgt it depends on his choice of breeding fheep, to ef- 

 fect not only the ch <ng already mentioned, but 

 likewise, either to correct or propagate defects, and 

 even multiplicity of horns, particularly by his 

 choice ot rams. 



Dr Pallas thinks it very probable, that the strep- 

 siceros variety of fheep, were produced in this man- 

 ner, by propagating a particular configuration of 

 horns; he alludes here to the animal which B.llonius 

 first discovered on mount Ida in Crete, and which 

 he supposes the strepsiceros of the ancients*. 



On the subject of multiplicity of horns, Dr Pallas 

 remarks, that there are no where so many flieep 

 Mith four, and cccssionallv five horns, as amongst 

 the flocks of the Tartars living on the banks of the 

 Jenisy. They are likevvis<^ generally arranged with 

 symmetry, rising from the head in radii, gently bent 

 inwards, and scarce a foot long, as rcprtsented in 

 plate second letter c hdcI plate third it ttcr b. The 

 ill St is a drawing of a Jarge Kirguise ram with five 



* Cur learned natutalist acknowledges in a note, an error 

 he had fallen :ito, in supposing the strepsiceros of Bellonius the 

 Scythian antelope or /«/?■, whilst we now know that animal never 

 approaches Europe, rearer than the deserts of Arabia. " I have since, 

 says the doctor, learned from the inspection of its horns that there ex- 

 ists a variety of flicep in Pannonia with horns often a yard and a 

 qnarter lon^, in both sexes, exactly like those so well described by 

 Eruickman in his acciint of the Ilungtirian flieep." 



Ej'isto/. It liter. Cent, i . 



