380 



SHEEP 



SHEEP-LOUSE 



most carefully bred flocks. The merino sheep 

 fatten* slowlv, and owes ite value altogether to the 

 excellence of ita wool. It baa not been found 

 profitable in Britain, where the production of 

 mutton is a great part of the object of the sheep- 

 farmer. Merinos are the main breed in Australia, 

 sometimes variously nuidilied by cnissinj,' with 

 English long-woolled sheep. In New Zealand the 



Fig. 8. Merino Ram. 



Lincoln, Romney, Leicester, and Cotowold breeds 

 are largely represented, as they do not suffer so 

 Hindi from loot n>t ns merinos, and their flesh of 

 course 1 t.-i-ies more like English mutton. 



A clever Australian shearer will clip from seventy 

 to a hundred ami twenty sheep in eight and a half 

 hours ; the champion shearer of Queensland did 

 three hundred and twenty-seven in nine hours. 

 The Wolseley Sheep-shearer, invented in Australia, 

 consists of a cutting wheel geared to the shait of 

 a small steam-turbine, which is worked by a cur- 

 rent of steam conveyed from the (toiler in an india- 

 rubl>er tube. A comb moves in front of the cutter, 

 effectually protecting the animal from injury. The 

 shearing apparatus, made of brass ami in shape 

 similar to a small trowel, is held in the band and 

 guided over the body of the sheep just as is ih>> 

 ordinary wool shears. The shearing-machine 

 works with great expedition and perfect safety to 

 the sheep. It will lie of great advantage where 

 flocks are large and labourers few. 



The Iceland Sheep is remarkable for very fre- 

 quently having three, four, or five horns a mon- 

 strosity found also in northern Russia. The north 

 of Africa possesses a breed of sheep with legs of 

 great length, pendulous ears, and mnoh-wohad 

 face ; the wool short and curled, except on the 

 neck and shoulders, which have a kind of mane. 

 India has also a hornless breed, with pendulous 

 ears, short tail, and very fine much-curled wool. 

 The Broad-tailed or Fat-tailed Sheep is found 

 in many parta of Asia, in liarbary, and is now 

 abundant in Cape Colony. It is rather of small 

 size, with soft and short wool. Its chief char- 

 acteristic is the enormous development of the 

 tail, by the accumulation of a mass of fat on each 

 side, so great that the tail has been known to 

 weigh 70 or 80 Ib. The tail is highly esteemed as 

 a delicacy, and to protect it from "being injured 

 by dragging on the ground the shepherd sonic 

 times attaches a board to it, or even a small 

 carriage with wheels. The Fat-rumped Sheep of 

 southern Tartan' has a similar accumulation of fat 

 on the rump. The Astrakhan or Buchanan Sheep 

 has the wool twisted in spiral curls, and of very 

 fine quality. The Circassian Sheep has a remark- 

 ably long tail, covered with fine long wool, which 

 trails on the ground. The Wallachian Sheen, 

 common in Hungary, as well as in Ronmania, is 

 distinguished by the -i/e and direction of its horns, 

 which after one spiral turn rise up from the head 

 to a peat length. The wool is soft, and is con- 

 eealedliy longhair. 



In the article AGRICULTURE tables are given on 

 pp. 100-1, showing the nnnilicr of sheep in the 

 United Kingdom at different dates; and similar 

 statistics are scattered up and dowir the work in 

 such articles as NEW ZEALAND and UNITED 

 SI'ATKS. The importance to Britain of foreign 

 supplies ni mutton may be gathered from the 

 articles of F()l> and VKKSKHVKII l'i:n\ IMONS. 

 The rapid growth of this trade iir recent years may 

 be seen from the single fact that, whereas the trade 

 of exporting mutton from New Xealand was in 

 1883 only worth 116,000, it had More the end of 

 that decade attained a value of over 700,000. 

 Reference should 1 made to the article WOOL, 

 and for sheep diseases to the articles on Anthrax, 

 Bot, Braxy, Fluke, Foot-rot, Murrain. Smallpox, 

 Sturdy, &c. See works by G. S. Heatley (1884), 

 I . Scott (1886), J. H. Steel (Disease*, 1890); 

 Stephens, Book of the Farm ( new ed. by Mac- 

 donald, 1889); Wallace, Farm Live-stock of Great 

 11, .lain (1885; new ed. 1889), and Rural hconomy 

 and Agriculture of New Zealand and Australia 

 ( 1891 ). 



Sheep-doff, a name which often includes the 

 Scottish Collie n|.v.), but which is more properly 

 applied to the English drover's dog. The Sheep-dog 

 or Smooth-coated Collie performs the same work 

 for the south-country shepherd as the rough-coated 

 for the northern one. The sheep-dog is built on more 

 sturdy and powerful lines than the collie, but lacks 

 the speed of the latter. His coat is short, thick, 

 and wiry ; and he is not so graceful as the collie, 

 though possibly quite as useful. Another variety of 

 the sheep-dog is the Bob-tailed or Moorland Collie. 



Bob tailed Sheep-dog, ' Wall-eye'd Bob.' 

 (From a Photograph by Oambier lioltun, F.Z.8.) 



When the game-laws were more stringent farmer* 

 were only allowed to keep a dog with a docked 

 tail, the current belief being that hares cannot lie 

 coursed with success by dogs with docked tails. 

 This treatment long continued is sometimes alleged 

 (though doubtfully) to have made the short tail 

 hereditary. The bob-tailed collie has a long, 

 shaggy, ami curly coat over body, legs, and head. 

 The colour' is generally a gray or grizzle. As a 

 cattle-dog he surpasses the other varieties, and is 

 also often used for sheep. 



Sheen-louse, or SHEEP-TICK, or (in Scotland) 

 K MII ( afelonhagiu ovinus), an insect of the family 

 Hippoboscidie, to which also the Forest Fly belongs, 

 ranked in the order Dipt era. although in this genus 

 the wings are completely wanting. It lives among 

 the wool of sheep, particularly of laml>s, sucking 

 the blood of the animal, and is most abundant in 



