66G 



SHEEP. 



the throat, especially in the male ; the tail is very 

 short in both sexes ; the colour in summer is 

 generally greyish fawn, vvith a reddish or yellowish 

 line down the back, and a large patch of the same 

 colour on the buttocks ; and the under part, and the 

 insides of the legs, are either russet, yellowish, or of 

 a white sand colour ; in winter the colour of the 

 upper part is more reddish, and the throat and 

 breast are more inclining to white ; but the patch on 

 the buttocks remains much the same at all seasons. 



According to the American naturalists, these animals 

 are found in little flocks, of about twenty or thirty in 

 each, on the rocky mountains, and extending southward 

 as far as California. Several naturalists have expressed 

 their conviction that the monflon of the south of Eu- 

 rope, the argali of Asia, and the wild sheep of America, 

 are only climatal varieties of one great species, to 

 which they have given the name of " mountain 

 sheep ; " but whether this is or is not positively the 

 fact, we have no means of ascertaining. Probability 

 is in favour of it, however, and the more so that, 

 among the domesticated sheep, which we have every 

 reason to believe are all originally of the same stock, 

 whatever that stock may have been, there are dif- 

 ferences of external appearance fully greater than 

 any which are to be met with among the wild ones ; 

 and we believe that, in the whole genus, there are no 

 differences but external ones. Some farther con- 

 fusion and uncertainty is produced among these wild 

 sheep by the conduct of the keepers of museums, 

 who have filled these with horns and other scraps, 

 not having any history, and which have, in conse- 

 quence, been referred to places where they are not 

 to be found. The great puzzle in the history of 

 this genus, however, is the proneness which it has 

 to break into varieties, not only in different countries, 

 but in the same country, and even in the same flock. 

 There are, however, other two species or varieties 

 which are worthy of notice, though even they do not 

 settle, or tend to settle, the question of common 

 origin. 



THE BEARDKD WILD SHEEP (O. trctgalephus). 

 This is the wild sheep of the mountains of Atlas, in 

 northern Africa, but whether it is native there, or 

 merely the common sheep that had been left to 

 wander into the mountains during one or another of 

 the man}' disastrous changes to which that part of 

 the world has been subjected, it is not easy for us to 

 ascertain at the present day. This species has been 

 known to European naturalists since the middle of 

 the sixteenth century, at which time a specimen was 

 brought from the mountains of northern Africa. It 

 was an animal of considerable dimensions, hardly 

 inferior to the red deer, standing three feet and a half 

 at the shoulder, and measuring four feet and a half 

 from the occiput to the tail ; the head, from the top 

 to the nostrils, was one feet three inches ; the horns 

 nearly thirteen inches in circumference at the base, 

 and so close to each other as to approach within a 

 single inch ; their curvature backwards and down- 

 wards ; the length rather more than two feet ; the 

 section triangular ; the faces with cross ridges arid 

 furrows, and the colour black ; the ears of small 

 dimensions ; the cheeks furnished with long hairs, 

 which divide into two tufts of a beard on the under 

 jaw ; the neck short and thick ; and the sides covered 

 with hairs pendent as low as the knees ; along the 

 neck, and great part of the ridge of the back, there is 

 an erect bristly mano, which is particularly high and 



tufted on the shoulders of the animal ; there are also 

 tufts, or brushes of hair, on the knees, but no callosity 

 as there is in the camel and in many of the antelopes; 

 the covering of the body, which is of a rusty black 

 colour, is hard and rough, resembling the hair of a 

 stag more than the wool of the common sheep. In- 

 deed, we believe that the fine wool of sheep is wholly 

 the result of culture, and appears only upon those 

 that are in a state of domestication ; and we find so 

 many varieties of it, arising from climate, pasture, 

 and other causes, that it is really very difficult to sav 

 what change cannot be produced in the covering of 

 animals of this genus, though the cause of the change 

 is, in many instances, a matter beyond our philo- 

 sophy. The legs of this animal are slender in pro- 

 portion to their length ; on the fore feet the exterior 

 hoofs are considerably larger than the interior ones. 

 The females are also said to be of larger size 

 than the males, which, if true, is an anomaly not only 

 in the ruminantia, but in the mammalia generally. 

 The account of this species or variety, as from the 

 mountains of Barbary, is by Caius, at so' v remote a 

 time as 1561, and thus it is open to some suspicion. 



That there are wild sheep in the mountains which 

 skirt the valley of the Nile, and by inference in all 

 the other hilly parts of northern Africa, is placed 

 beyond a doubt by the testimony of M. Geoffrey 

 Saint Hillaire, who obtained one that had been 

 killed near the gates of Cairo, though not common 

 in that part of the country. It answered pretty 

 nearly "to the characters that have been mentioned, 

 and was at least a fifth larger in size than the 

 mouflon of the south of Europe. In fact, it appears 

 to be a sort of connecting link between the goats arid 

 the sheep ; but its history is still too imperfect for 

 enabling us to come to any distinct conclusions 

 respecting it. It appears to have been discovered 

 by different authors, as if it were two distinct species, 

 some calling it the ruffed sheep, and others the 

 bearded sheep 5 but its appearance at different ages 

 and seasons has been too little observed for enabling 

 us to come to ai)V definite conclusion respecting it. 



The history of sheep in the natural state is one 

 which, though of much interest, is attended with 

 many difficulties. That they inhabited most parts of 

 Europe in the very early ages appears to be a point 

 not admitting of much dispute ; and the question arises, 

 what has become of their bones ? This is a question 

 put, not only with regard to the bones of sheep, but 

 to those of the greater part both of the mammalia 

 and of birds, none of which are found in preservation, 

 except in places where they have obviously been 

 covered by a deposit of earthy matters. The only 

 answer appears to be that, in wild nature, there are 

 bone-destroyers adequate to the consumption of all 

 the bones that may be left on the surface. The action 

 of the atmosphere and the sun is the most powerful 

 and most constant in its operation in the wanner cli- 

 mates ; and then, in addition to this, there are many 

 animals which gnaw bones. Of these the most re- 

 markable are wolves and hyaenas ; though there are 

 also some birds which, though they cannot of course 

 gnaw bones, yet swallow and digest them. Now it 

 will be found that where there are wild sheep or 

 other wild ruminanlia still to be met with, there are 

 either wolves or hyaenas, or both ; and though the 

 hyaena of the north belongs perhaps to a more remote 

 period than the sheep (of which, however, we have 

 no positive evidence), yet the wolf was certainly a 



