VABIED NATURB OF THE FOOD OF SHEEP. 89 



which may be exposed to the gratification of their 

 longings. 



The Puruk sheep of Ladusk, in the Himalaya 

 mountains, is, as described by Mr Moorecraft, in the 

 Transactions of the Asiatic Society, in respect to the 

 varied nature of its food, a most remarkable animal. 

 " The Puruk sheep, if permitted, thrusts its head into 

 the cooking pot, picks up crumbs, is eager to drink 

 the remains of a cup of broth, and examine the hand of 

 its master for barley, flour, or a cleanly picked bone, 

 which it disdains not to nibble ; a leaf of lettuce, a 

 peeling of turnip, the skin of the apricot, give a luxury ; 

 and the industry is indefatigable with which this animal 

 detects, and appropriates substances, so minute and 

 uninviting as would be unseen and neglected by ordi- 

 nary sheep ; perhaps the dog of the cottager is not so 

 eompletely domesticated as it is." That Mr Moorecraft 

 is correct in this statement of its omnivorous propen- 

 sities, there cannot be the slightest doubt, as any farmer 

 can testify from what he has seen of lambs reared bj' 

 children for amusement. The celebrated John Hunter 

 showed, that a pigeon might be made to live on flesh, 

 and that its stomach became adapted to the nature of 

 this food : and I have somewhere read of a sheep, 

 which, after being long on ship-board, and accustomed, 

 from scarcity of vegetables, to an animal diet, could 

 never after be prevailed upon to take to grass. Nor 

 need these circumstances excite surprise, since the food 

 of every living creature is, for a certain period at the 

 commencement of existence, limited to such as is purely 

 animal. But to keep to our subject. Those in the habit 

 of opening the stomachs of sheep, must have remarked 



