io Wild Life in Wales 



tenant shall leave, and disposing of it to his new tenant 

 to the best advantage he can, at the same time freeing 

 himself from any liability respecting it at the next change 

 in tenancy would in many cases impose upon him an im- 

 mediate pecuniary loss, which he might not be in a position 

 to meet, with a possible prospective loss of rental to the 

 estate when the sheep came to be separated from the 

 land. It would no doubt be an ideal arrangement for a 

 new tenant were he able to make such bargain as he could 

 with the outgoing man, untrammelled by any obligation to 

 purchase ; but before that desirable end can be attained, 

 it would seem that the right of the sitting tenant, under 

 his lease or agreement, must be taken over and paid for by 

 somebody. 



The most prevalent type of sheep is a white-faced, 

 hornless animal, scanty of fleece, and long of limb ; but 

 more or less of a brown mottle shows on the face, and 

 often on the shanks of many of them, and in these the 

 ewes show a greater tendency to carry horns. The 

 majority of the rams are horned, the white-faced ones 

 less invariably so than those that show colours. Black 

 sheep are not very common, but some of the lambs 

 are very curiously marked, some of them being spotted 

 and patched with brown in a very picturesque manner. 

 I saw a few that were almost perfect " black-and-tans." 

 Scotch black-faces had been tried on one or two farms, and 

 had left their mark on the fleeces of their descendants ; but 

 they had not done well, I was informed, and the crosses 

 were not favourites. 



The curious custom of clipping the lambs in their first 

 autumn still prevails on many of the farms, almost the only 

 excuse for its survival being the fear that the length of 

 wool might impede the animal's progress in snow. To 

 unaccustomed eyes the shorn lambs are much disfigured 

 by the operation, and the value of the autumn clip 

 cannot equal the loss in the subsequent year's fleece, 

 while the half-clothed lamb in winter, should the weather 

 be hard, is rather a pitiable object. When it comes 

 up at the usual clipping time in the following summer, 



