yj INTRODUCTION. 



of this work, and without much previous consideration to devise a 

 uniform mode of classification in the premises, I adopted and have 

 made use of the following: 



The term breed is applied to those extensive and permanent groups 

 of sheep which are believed to have. had, respectively, a common origin 

 which exhibit certain common leading characteristics and which 

 transmit those characteristics with uniformity to their progeny. Ex- 

 amples of Breeds, are the Merino of Spain, including its pure blood 

 descendants, wherever found ; the Fat - Humped Sheep of Asia, the 

 Long-Wooled Sheep of England, and the Short -Wooled Sheep of 

 England. The term Variety is applied to different national branches 

 of the same breed, such as the Saxon, French and American varieties 

 of the parent Spanish Merino. The term Family is used to designate 

 those branches of a breed or variety found in the same country, which 

 exhibit permanent, but ordinarily lesser differences than varieties. 

 Thus the different kinds of Downs and the Rylands are families of 

 the English Short - Wooled sheep ; the Cotswolds and the Liecesters 

 are families of the English Long -Wooled sheep ; the Infantados and 

 Paulars are families of both the Spanish and American Merinos. 

 The term sub- family is occasionally used to designate a minor group, 

 bearing about the same relation to a family that a family does to a 

 variety. No satisfactory term was found to characterize the smallest 

 and initial group of all, those closely related animals, to which, 

 among human beings, we apply the designation of a family, when we 

 use that word in its most restricted sense. Perhaps I have sometimes, 

 awkwardly enough, spoken of them as animals of the same individual 

 blood, or as possessing the same strain of individual blood. 



The system of classification above described, answers very well 

 when applied to the Merino. This breed exhibits all the enumerated 

 classes in permanent, distinct forms, each to a certain extent isolated 

 from the others by separate breeding, for a considerable period, and 

 totally isolated from all other and outside groups of sheep by perfect 

 purity of blood. But this classification is wholly unsatisfactory when 

 applied to the British breeds of sheep. I will not consume space to 

 explain a fact, the causes of which will be so obvious to the observing 

 reader. 



I return my sincere thanks to the following gentlemen for valuable 

 aid in collecting materials for this work none the less valuable 

 because, in many instances, they were contributed in a form which 

 required no special mention in my pages. I arrange the names 

 alphabetically to avoid making a distinction where, in most cases, 

 none exists: A. B. Allen, Lewis F. Allen, George Campbell, N. L. 

 Chaffee, Edmund Clapp, Prosper Elithorp, George Geddes, James 

 Gedcles, W. F. Greer, James S. Grennell, Edwin Hammond, Benjamin 

 P. Johnson, Geo. Liverruore, R. A. Loveland, Daniel Needham, Theo- 

 dore C. Peters, Virtulan Rich, William R. Sanford, Nelson A. Saxton, 

 Homer L. D. Sweet, Samuel Thome, and M. W. C. Wright. 



, N. Y., 

 September, 1863. 



