596 SHEEP HORNED WHITE-FACED SHORT-WOOLS 



early-maturity and symmetrical Southdown, and its modern 

 prototype now fattens quickly when grass comes. Plates of the 

 gaunt and ungainly pure breed are given in the illustrated 

 edition of Low's Domesticated Animals, and the original oil- 

 paintings from which they were taken are preserved in the 

 Agriculture Department of the University of Edinburgh. The 

 present localities of the modern representatives of the breed 

 are in the neighbourhoods of Aylesbury, Bucks, and North- 

 ampton, where a number of farmers keep small flocks. The 

 largest, numbering about sixty ewes, is that of C. H. Monk, 

 Sheepcote Hill, Aylesbury, who has had the breed for about 

 thirty years. Although somewhat like the Dorset Horn when 

 the latter is newly shorn, they are of quite a distinct breed, 

 but, probably owing to the difficulty of procuring fresh blood, 

 some farmers have crossed their flocks with the Dorset. The 

 striking peculiarity of the Western sheep is that it produces 

 a very light, worthless coat of hairy wool which falls off in 

 April and May, except in the case of sheep in low condition, 

 on which it clings a few weeks later. The lambs even peel 

 all over in July as clean as if they had been shaven. They 

 are born with long tails. Ram lambs are in great request at 

 an average price of about 3, los. (or 5 for the best) for 

 crossing with Hampshire or with Welsh ewes to produce fat 

 lambs. Western Hampshire cross-bred lambs dropped in 

 February or March, weigh from 6 to 8 stones (8 Ibs.) in the 

 end of May or beginning of June. Plate CXCI. shows typical 

 representatives of this breed of sheep, which are symmetrical, 

 thick at the heart-girth, and weigh heavier than they look. 

 Ewes frequently scale 1 1 to 12 stones each. They take the ram 

 about the middle of September. The black spots on the skin 

 are characteristic of the breed, but thought by some to be the 

 result of in-breeding. The grey shading which appears on 

 the noses of some sheep is probably derived from an early 

 dash of Southdown blood. 



HORNLESS WHITE-FACED SHORT-WOOLS 

 The Ryeland breed, named from "a district in the 

 southern part of Herefordshire, on which rye used to be 

 grown," is discussed at considerable length by Youatt (1837), 

 but with a deal of speculation and uncertainty. It appears 

 to have been originally a small but very hardy white-faced 



