BARNS WITH OPEN SHEDS. 



213 



the cold; and they did not prevent the ewes going out of 

 them to lamb, or from leading their new-born lambs out at 

 very unseasonable times, to follow the movements of the flock. 



SHEEP BARN. 



No female animal is more attached to her young than the 

 ewe, but none exhibits less providence in protecting it from 

 any danger, except by setting it an example of running from 

 those which terrify and demand flight.* If the ewe needed 



* Even then, if seriously frightened, she generally runs directly away from the 

 danger without stopping for her lamb if it cannot keep up. She has not the remotest 

 idea of sheltering it from cold by the warmth of her own person, or any apparent 

 consciousness that anywhere, or under any circumstances, it is weaker or tenderer or 

 more exposed to danger than herself. We read anecdotes of a very contrary tenor 





among sentimental writers, and naturalists who wish to enliven their narrations, or 

 sustain some favorite theory. These anecdotes are very pretty sometimes affecting; 

 but unfortunately in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, untrue ! Jessie, for example, 

 expatiates on the fact that the ewe with twins does not allow one of them to suck 

 until the other is ready to share in the meal. Now every practical sheep farmer has 

 been a thousand times provoked by seeing a ewe, followed by one strong, fat twin 

 lamb which she allowed to fill itself at pleasure, moving restlessly about, without 

 waiting for, or seeming to have any care for, its mate, which was born weaker and less 

 able to follow and which is being starved to death in consequence of its weakness. 

 Even Mr. Youatt talks of special attachments between particular sheep, and of their 

 " alternately sheltering each other from the biting blast and the suffocating drift." He 

 quotes from the Shepherd's Calender the following statement : " When a sheep 

 becomes blind it is rarely abandoned to itself in this hapless and helpless state: some 

 one of the flock attaches himself to it and, by bleating, calls it back from the precipice, 

 and the lake, and the pool, and every kind of danger." (Youatt on Sheep, p. 375.) I 

 have no doubt that the half wild breeds in the mountains of Scotland, and in other 

 regions where they are left almost in a state of nature to obtain their food and take 

 care of themselves, retain far more of their natural instincts than the more thoroughly 

 domesticated sheep. They will band together to fight an enemy, and it is said the ewe 

 will fight a fox or small dog in defence of her lamb. I never saw an instance of either, 

 among the Merinos. I never saw one sheep render another any direct or intentional 

 assistance of any kind unless the following are instances of it. There are a few rams 

 which will not permit a stranger to catch out one of their ewes when they are 

 together in the winter yard. I own such a ram now, and even his attendant has to 

 act with great caution under such circumstances. Whether the precise object of the 

 ram is to protect its associates, I am unable to say. The Merino, removed to moun- 

 tains or great plains, and removed from the constant control and supervision of man, 

 may acquire, or resume habits more necessary in such situations. 



