THE HORNS AND THEIR DISEASES. 



265 



SKULL OF A HORNLESS SHEEP. 



1. The Occipital bone. 



2. The parietal bones, the suture having disappeared. 



3. The squamous portions of the temporal bone. 



4. The meatus auditorius, or bony opening into the ear. 



5. The frontal bones. 



0. The openings through which blood-vessels pass to supply 

 the forehead. 



7. The bony orbits of the eye. 



8. The zygomatic or molar bones. 



9. The lachrymal bones. 



10. The bones of the nose. 



11. The upper jaw bone. 



12. The foramen, through which the nerve and blood-vessela 



pass to supply the lower part of the face. 



13. The nasal processes of the intermaxillary bones. 



14. The pelatine processes. 



15. The intermaxillary bone, supporting the cartilaginous pad, 



instead of containing teeth. 



THE HORNS AND THEIR DISEASES. Whether sheep 

 should be bred to have horns or not depends upon the taste 

 of the owner. In the abstract, they are, undoubtedly, a 

 wholly useless appendage, render the lamb more difficult of 

 parturition, and in their massive proportions on the head of 

 the male Merino, cause him to be, however quiet his temper, a 

 dangerous associate to breeding ewes in advanced stages of 

 pregnancy. Yet I know no leading Merino breeder who 

 would use a polled or hornless ram, any sooner than would a 

 Down or Leicester breeder use a ram having horns ! Each 

 clings to the characteristics of his breed. Most Merino 

 breeders, however, object to horns on ewes though very 

 small ones, having but one convolution, are not uncommon. 

 I have never seen it remarked that the different families of 

 Merinos in Spain exhibited any different characteristics in 

 their horns but the American Infantados and Paulars, as 

 now modified, generally do so. In the former, the convolu- 

 tions are nearer together, and the first one frequently passes 

 down very close to the head and neck in a few instances 

 presses so closely on them that, in the case of valuable ram 

 lambs, the horns are artificially spread apai't by means of an 

 iron brace placed between them (over the back side of the 

 head) which can be lengthened by a screw as the horns give 

 way to the pressure. In the Paular, the horns are usually 

 quite divergent, and frequently of great size. * 



* The fact that the Silesians, which are deep in Infantado blood, have also the 

 close or convergent horn, would go to show that it is a family peculiarity. I owned a 

 Paular ram two or three years since, which at two years old, measured three feet 

 between the tips of his horns. He died before he was three years old ; and a person 

 sawed off his horns so as to take that portion of the skull covered by the base of each. 

 He subsequently boiled them to detach them from the bones. They have lain dry two 

 years. Weighed to-day, with the inside bones, they weigh 6 Ibs. ! 

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