SHEEP. 321 



of remote and continued subjugation. Their long, pendant, 

 drowsy ears, and the highly artificial posterior developments, 

 are characteristic of no wild or recently domesticated race. 



This breed consists of numerous sub-varieties, differing in 

 all their characteristics of size, fleece, &c., with quite as 

 many and marked shades of distinction as the modern Euro- 

 pean varieties. In Madagascar, they are covered with hair ; 

 in the south of Africa, with coarse wool ; in the Levant, and 

 along the Mediterranean, the wool is comparatively line ; and 

 from that of the fat-rumped sheep of Thibet, the exquisite Cash- 

 mere shawls are manufactured. Both rams and ewes are some- 

 times bred with horns, and sometimes without, and they ex- 

 hibit a great diversity of color. Some yield a carcass of 

 scarcely 30 Ibs., while others have weighed 200 Ibs. dressed. 

 The tail or rump varies greatly, according to the purity and 

 style of breeding; some are less than one eighth, while 

 others exceed one third the entire dressed weight. The fat of 

 the rump or tail is considered a great delicacy, and in hot 

 climates resembles oil, and in colder, suet. The broad-tailed 

 were brought into' this country about 50 years since, by 

 Commodore Barron and Judge Peters, and bred with the 

 native flocks. They were called the Tunisian Mountain 

 sheep. Some of them were subsequently distributed by Col. 

 Pickering, of Massachusetts, among the farmers of Pennsyl- 

 vania ; and their mixed descendants were highly prized as 

 prolific and good nursers, coming early to maturity, attaining 

 large weights of a superior quality of carcass, and yielding a 

 heavy fleece of excellent wool. The principal objection 

 brought against them, was the difficulty of propogation, which 

 always required the assistance of the shepherd. The lambs 

 were dropped white, red, tawny, bluish or black ; but all 

 excepting the black, grew white as they approached maturity, 

 retaining some spots of the original color on the cheeks and 

 legs, and sometimes having the entire head tawny or black. 

 Tiie few which descended from those originally imported 

 into this country, have become blended with American flocks, 

 and are now scarcely distinguishable from them. 



NATIVE OR COMMON SHEEP OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 Strictly speaking, there are no sheep indigenous to North 

 America, excepting the Oms Montana, or Rocky Mountain 

 sheep. Before the introduction, of the improved European 

 breeds, during the present century, our sheep consisted gener- 

 ally of a hardy, long-legged, coarse, open-fleeced animal, which 

 yielded according to attention and feed, from 1 i to 4 Ibs. of 

 N* 



