British Sheep. 15 



soft, badly-felting wool. Nearly allied to the Welsh MountJiin 

 breed were the Irish Wicklow Sheep before they were altered by 

 crossing. Larger than these are the Kerry Sheep, in which the ewes 

 are frequently hornless, and the fleece is moderately soft and inter- 

 spersed with hair. 



Sheep of the Heath breed, from the mountains and moors of 

 Derbyshire, and the counties to the north, have horns in both sexes, 

 black faces and legs, and a coarse and shaggy fleece. Cheviots are 

 somewhat heavier, with white faces and legs, and moderately fine 

 wool. In the old Norfolk breed the horns of the rams are massive 

 and spiral, the body and limbs long, the face and legs black, and the 

 wool silky and of medium length. The Sheep of Dartmoor and 

 Exmoor exemplify the various Moorland breeds, which are of small 

 size, often with dark or grey faces and limbs, and with or without 

 horns. In the two breeds named, the wool is of medium length, but 

 in other Moorland Sheep it is very short. 



In the Southdown breed horns are wanting, the face, ears and 

 legs are blackish brown, and tlie wool is short, close, and felting. 

 The Dorset and pink-nosed Someraet breeds are long-limbed, horned 

 Sheep, with white faces, ears, and legs, wool of medium length, 

 and the nose frequently flesh-coloured. In the Forest of Dean and 

 the Mendips the Dorsets are represented by a smaller variety ; the 

 Portland breed being also allied, but very small-sized. 



Merinos, in which the females are usually hornless, and the face 

 and legs are either white or grey, have very long and fine wool. 

 The other long-woolled breeds in which horns are wanting include 

 the New Leicester, Lincolnshire, Romney Marsh, Cotswold, Devon- 

 shire, Nottinghamshire, and the long-woolled Irish. They are all 

 large-sized Sheep, with wool adapted for the manufacture of worsted 

 yarn, but unsuited for felting. 



„ . . , A number of specimens, mainly heads and skulls, represent 

 some of the more striking British breeds. Among them, 

 the Scotch Mountain breed is represented by a wether 

 from Kirkcudbrightshire, presented by Mr. H. Grant in 1900 ; by the 

 skull of a ram from Argyllshire, presented by Mr. A. J. H. Campbell in 

 1901 ; and by two mounted heads of rams. Of the Norfolk breed 

 there is the head of a ram, from Cambridgeshire, purchased in 1903 ; 

 while the Dorset breed, in which (like the Scotch) both sexes 

 carry horns, is represented by the heads of a ram and of a wether. 

 Other breeds exhibited are Black Welsh, Cotswold, Suffolk, 

 Hampshire Down, Leicester, Shropshire, and Devonshire. In the 



