280 



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 distin- 

 guish one another as before. This embarrassment 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 con- 

 fusion, from the reason given above*. 



RABBITS. 



RABBITS make incomparably the finest turf, for they riot 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. 



CAT AND SQUIRRELS.* 



A BOY has taken three little young squirrels in their nest, or 



* The changes of appearance which the common squirrel undergoes have not been noticed in 

 ^ny work that 1 have met with. They shed their covering twice in the year, and in summer the 



