CHAPTER XXV 



ISLAND, MOUNTAIN, AND MOORLAND BREEDS OF SHEEP 



Remnants of Ancient Breeds of Island Sheep The Four-horned The 

 Shetland The Faroe Islands' Sheep Mountain and Moorland 

 Breeds The Cheviot Scotch Blackface Highland The Shep- 

 herds' Calendar Habits of Mountain Sheep Shepherding 

 Shelter The Lonk The Rough Sheep The Swaledale The 

 Gritstone The Limestone The Penistone The Old Norfolk 

 Horned Sheep The Herdwick The Welsh Mountain The Kerry 

 Hill The Radnor or Tanface The Clun Forest The Exmoor 

 The Dartmoor. 



SHEEP belong to the genus Ovis. They have been sub- 

 jected to domestication as far back as records go. They 

 are classified in various ways in this country : horned and 

 hornless, blackfaced and whitefaced, mountain and lowland, 

 long-wools and short-wools, long-tailed and short-tailed. 

 Iceland sheep possess remarkably small and insignificant 

 tails. In the East there are sheep with rudimentary tails and 

 large masses of fat on the rump ; while others, again, have 

 the fatty development in the tail itself. Two is the usual 

 number of horns, but in the Western Islands of Scotland 

 remnants of the ancient polycerate sheep exhibit four horns, 

 or at times even a greater number. A general characteristic 

 of the sheep is the presence of only one pair of teats from 

 which milk can be drawn, though a second rudimental pair 

 is not infrequently seen in British breeds. 



Fecundity, or the state of being prolific, differs much in 

 different breeds of sheep, and in different specimens of the 

 same breed. Some bear single lambs, some twins, and 

 some triplets, while four and even five have been known to 

 be brought forth at one birth. Although the local surround- 

 ings, including the kind, quality, and quantity of food, have 

 much to do in determining the issue, yet there is unquestion- 

 ably an inherent propensity in certain ewes to follow regular 

 habits in the matter of producing certain numbers of off- 



519 



