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 distinguish 

 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, dis- 

 criminating each individual personally ; which also is confounded 

 by the strong scent of pitch and tar wherewith they are newly 

 marked ; for the brute creation recognise each other more from 

 the smell than the sight ; and in matters qf identity and diversity 

 appeal much more to their noses than their eyes. After sheep have 

 been washed there is the same confusion, from the reason given 

 above. WHITE. 



RABBITS. 



Rabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not 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. WHITE. 



