226 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by IK. f. Dando} [AV/../if* I 



FOUB-HOBNED SHEEP. 



There are several breeds of these sheep, some from China, some from Iceland, and others from 



South Africa. 



tail is longer than in other 

 wild sheep, and in the males 

 a large mane covers the chest. 



THE BURHAL, OR BLUE SHEEP. 



This species possibly indi- 

 cates the transition-point from 

 the sheep to the goats. It 

 was pointed out by Mr. Brian 

 Hodgson that it had certain 

 features more like the goats 

 than the sheep, and later 

 other writers laid stress on 

 structural differences of the 

 same kind, both in skull and 

 horns. It has not the dis- 

 agreeable odour of the goats; 

 but the black markings which 

 separate the white of the belly 

 from the brown of the flanks, and run down the front of the legs, are like those seen on some goats. 

 The horns rise in a curve outwards and downwards. The largest are only some 30 inches long. 

 'Burhal are perhaps the commonest of all Asiatic wild sheep. They inhabit the whole 

 length of the higher Himalayan Eange, and are found over and round the Central Asian plateau 

 as far north as Yarkand. The horns make two half-moons at right angles to the skull. Unlike 

 some 'of the other wild sheep, burhal often climb the very highest ground of all. Much of 

 the best burhal ground is above 17,000 feet high, and, as Mr. Whitbread remarks, this alone 

 makes the chase of such an animal difficult. As in the moufflon, the mutton is excellent. 

 There is no difficulty whatever in taming these wild Himalayan sheep ; those in the Zoological 

 Gardens are practically domesticated. 



DOMESTICATED SHEEP. 



Under domestication sheep exhibit a wide variety of coat, shape, and size, very striking 

 to the eye, and very important in regard to 

 the produce of wool or mutton. The intro- 

 duction of a particular breed, with long wool 

 or short wool as the case may be, has often 

 saved or altered for a time the economic 

 condition of a colony or province. It was 

 the introduction of the sheep which gave 

 Australia first rank among the rich colonies 

 of the world; and the discovery that the 

 Cheviot breed would thrive on the Scotch 

 hills made millions of acres remunerative 

 which might otherwise have been very un- 

 productive. But the only important change 

 in the structure of the sheep in domestica- 

 tion is the lengthening of the tail. The 

 carcase may be fat mutton or thin mutton, 

 'the wool long or short, fine or coarse ; but 

 the sheep itself remains true to type, and of 

 much the same docile habits, under all the 



Changes of the breeders. 



Phol b v J- 



[Serklian 



SOUTH DOWN SHEEP. 



The finest breed of down-sheep. 



