ANIMALS OF THE 



from the rest, by their freshness and whiteness. 

 There are some breeds, however, in England, 

 that never change their teeth at all : these the 

 shepherds call the leather-mouthed cattle; and, as 

 their teeth are thus longer wearing, they are 

 generally supposed to grow old a year or two be- 

 fore the rest.* The sheep brings forth one or two 

 at a time, and sometimes three or four. The 

 first lamb of an ewe is generally pot-bellied, short 

 and thick, and of less value than those of a second 

 or third production, the third being supposed the 

 best of all. They bear their young five months ; 

 and, by being housed, they bring forth at any tim e 

 of the year. 



But this animal, in its domestic state, is too 

 well known to require a detail of its peculiar 

 habits, or of the arts which have been used to 

 improve the breed. Indeed, in the eye of an ob- 

 server of nature, every art which tends to render 

 the creature more helpless and useless to itself, 

 may be considered rather as an injury than an 

 improvement ; and if we are to look for this ani- 

 mal in its noblest state, we must seek for it in the 

 African desert or the extensive plains of Siberia. 

 Among the degenerate descendants of the wild 

 sheep there have been so many changes wrought, 

 as entirely to disguise the kind, and often, to mis- 

 lead the observer. The variety is so great, that 

 scarcely any two countries have their sheep of the 

 same kind ; but there is found a manifest diffe- 

 rence in all, either in the size, the covering, the 

 shape, or the horns. 



* Lisle's Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 1 55. 



