OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS 



SHEEP 



THE sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are very 

 ragged, and their coats much torn ; the shepherds say 

 they tear their fleeces with their own mouths and horns, 

 and they are always in that way in mild wet winters, being 

 teased and tickled with a kind of lice. 



After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion 

 and bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able 

 to distinguish one another as before. This embarrass- 

 ment seems not so much to arise from the loss of the 

 fleece, which may occasion an alteration in their appearance, 

 as from the defect of that notus odor, discriminating each 

 individual personally ; which also is confounded by the 

 strong scent of the pitch and tar wherewith they are newly 

 marked ; for the brute creation recognize each other more 

 from the smell than the sight ; and in matters of identity 

 and diversity appeal much more to their noses than their 

 eyes. After sheep have been washed there is the same 

 confusion, from the reason given above. 



RABBITS 



Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not 

 only bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no 

 bents to rise ; hence warrens produce much the most 

 delicate turf for gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of 

 grasses. 



422 



