CHAPTER V. 

 Gestation, Parturition, etc. 



THE RAM. 



OF late years much attention has been paid to the 

 form of the ram from which to breed, as well as 

 the quality of his wool, fleeces, and other properties 

 which experience has shown to be the most ap- 

 propriate. 



The head should be fine, and rather small than 

 otherwise ; his eyes large and prominent, ears thin, 

 his nostrils wide and expanded, his collar full from 

 the breast and shoulders, but gradually tapering from 

 the junction of the head and neck, and the latter of a 

 graceful and gentle curve, without any appearance of 

 hanging skin underneath ; the shoulders broad and 

 full, and joining smoothly to the collar forward, and 

 to the chine backward, without permitting a hollow 

 in either situation ; the muscle upon his arm or fore- 

 thigh must swell boldly from its superior part to the 

 knee ; the legs straight with a clean and fine bone ; 

 the knee must not have any loose skin about it, and 

 the hair from thence, as well as from the hough 

 downwards, without long or coarse hair ; the breast 

 broad and well-formed, and his fore-legs placed at a 

 proper distance from each other ; his chest of con- 

 siderable girth, full and deep, free from any hollow 

 between the shoulders, and the fore-flank quite full : 



