146 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



obstinate, and will object to be driven into a pen, even 

 though the interior be scattered thickly with the succulent 

 turnip, and nothing short of prodding with a stick, assisted by 

 barking on the part of a dog and bad language on the part of 

 the shepherd, will induce it to enter. The animal, except in 

 early youth, has no idea of humour ; and even on the part 

 of the lamb, playfulness is expressed only by a little frisking 

 of an incoherent character. It has been said that the sheep 

 is capable of attachment to persons ; and an American 

 ballad specifically states, that a lamb belonging to a young 

 person of the name of Mary followed her wheresoever she 

 went. The fact, however, that the circumstance should 

 have been considered worthy of chronicle in verse shows 

 its great rarity. One of the peculiarities about sheep is 

 the extreme similarity of feature which characterises the 

 individuals of the same breed. Nature, which so loves 

 variety that it is said that no two leaves in a great tree are 

 exactly alike, gave up the sheep as hopeless. The straight 

 forehead and nose, the lack-lustre eye, admitted of no 

 variety short of complete change, and even the interference 

 of man, although it has created many varieties in size and 

 coat, has done nothing to alter the face ; it remains in its 

 normal state of uniform stolidity. Lambs, indeed, recog- 

 nise their mothers among a flock ; but it is probable that 

 the sense of smell rather than of sight enables them to 

 do so. 



Even the poets, who have managed to say something for 

 most animals, have been unable to invent anything favour- 

 able concerning sheep ; and silly has been their favourite 

 epithet for it. The poet who has apparently devoted most 

 attention to their doings, goes so far as to say that a flock, 



