4:2 WILD I.lFi: IN N K \V XKALAXD. 



that at nearly every mustering these short-winded sheep used to 

 be left behind, being unable to be driven with the rest. Sometimes 

 they were brought <>n moiv slowly afterwards, but if it happened 

 to be shearing-time thcv were simply caught an<l shorn where they 

 lay. As a result of this peculiar condition a form of artificial 

 selection was set up, the vigorous, active sheep bring constantly 

 drafted away for sale, &c., while this defective strain increased 

 with irreat raj>idity throughout the district, for whenever tin- molts 

 were mustered for the market, shearing, or drafting, these " cranky 

 sheep," as they came to be called, were left behind. 



This defective character appeared in every succeeding ^em-ra- 

 tion, and seemed to increase in force, reminding one of the Ancon 

 sheep referred to by Darwin. At first, of course, the character waa 

 not recognized as hereditary, hut as the numbers of this " cranky 

 breed increased to a very great extent, and spread over the district, 

 it came at last to be recognized as a local variety. When the runs 

 on which these sheep were abundant were cut up and sold, or re- 

 leased in smaller areas, the purchasers found it necessary, for the 

 protection of their own interests, to exterminate the variety, of 

 which hundreds were found straggling over the country. This wa-- 

 easily and effectively done in the following manner : As soon 

 sheep of this variety was observed it was pursued, but after runninu 

 for a couple of hundred yards at a great rate of speed it would 

 drop down panting behind a big stone or other shelter, and seemed 

 incapable for a time of rising and renewing its flight. It was 

 immediately destroyed, ami in this manner a useless but to the 

 naturalist a very interesting variety was eliminated. 



Sheep were introduced into the Chatham Islands in the early 

 "forties," but as bite as IS.").") there were only about two hundred 

 of them. When sheep-stations were organ i/.rd in I *<'>('> there were 

 about two thousand on the island, and by 1!UM) thev had inen 

 to about sixty thousand, and by this time a irreat many had bceonv 

 wild. Dr. Cockayne says, they have profoundly altered the native 



i at ion bv >nting out ninny character]'-; i- ipeoiei of plants. 

 M Miinsntitliuw unhilt, Arr fifi i/lln Tmi'irsii. Veronica / /////. 



find allied specie^, all of which they eat trreedily. 



On the Auckland Islands sheep have been liberated at various 

 tin,, I,- 1 !)!), and on the Antipodes between IS.-T, and lH'tn. 



f,, r the benefit nt' shipwreeked mariners, but they either died off 



