ACQUIRED AND ABNORMAL CHARACTERS. 55 



Onondaga County, New York. He was a choice ani- 

 mal, and his owner, David Ely, valued his small ears 

 as a distinctive mark of his blood. 



" He bred a flock by him, and gradually almost 

 bred off their ears entirely. 



" His flock enjoyed great celebrity and popularity 

 in its day, but has long been broken up, and many 

 years have doubtless elapsed since any of the sur- 

 rounding sheep-owners have used a c little-eared ' ram ; 

 yet nearly every flock that retains a drop of that blood 

 even coarse-mutton sheep bred away from it, prob- 

 ably for ten or fifteen generations, insomuch that all 

 Saxon characteristics have totally disappeared still 

 continues to throw out an occasional lamb as distinctly 

 marked with the precise peculiarity under considera- 

 tion as Mr. Ely's original stock." 1 



The "Ancon" or "Otter" breed of sheep, that 

 originated in Massachusetts in 1791, were character- 

 ized by the length of their bodies and the " extreme 

 shortness of the legs, which also turned out in such a 

 manner as to render them rickety. They cannot run 

 or jump, and even walk with difficulty." a 



This deformed breed is said to be descended from 



1 "Practical Shepherd," p. 104. 



2 These sheep were described by Colonel Humphreys, in the " Philo- 

 sophical Transactions," London, 1813, p. 88, according to Darwin 

 ("Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i., p. 126), who states 

 that this breed had their origin on the farm of Seth Wright, in Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Chancellor Livingston, in his "Essay on Sheep," 1813, p. 37, from 

 which the description above is quoted, says, " The Otter sheep, it is 

 said, were first discovered on some island on our Eastern coast, where, 

 I cannot precisely say, and from thence they have spread to the adjoin- 

 ing States." 



