60 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



England, who says: "I visited the Southdown mutton country 

 when I was in England. I studied the sheep and the land well. 

 As I walked over the Downs, I was amazed at the hundreds of 

 fat snails that I saw in the moist, fine grass. 'It must annoy the 

 pasturing sheep/ I thought, 'to have all these snails about/ And 

 this thought had hardly left my mind when I saw a plump ewe 

 take up a snail and swallow it like an oyster. Jove, she enjoyed 

 it! I followed her, and I saw her eat six snails a kind of hors 

 d'oeuvre before she settled down to her regular meal of grass. I 

 talked about this matter afterward with the shepherds and they 

 told me that all the Southdown sheep were great snail eaters. 

 They said it was the flesh of snails that gave to Southdown mutton 

 its peculiar flavor." 



In an interesting little work, "Anecdotes of Animals," Mr. 

 John Kent, an English author, gives this clever little story of a 



Blackface-Southdown Cross Photo by "Shepherd Boy." 



Southdown ewe a member of the late Duke of Richmond's famous 

 Goodwood flock. This particular ewe was more than ordinarily 

 domestic and one of the under shepherds, a mere boy in years, made 

 a great pet of her and invariably shared his bread with her at the 

 noonday meal. Not only did the boy find pleasure in feeding his 

 pet but likewise in clothing her. One day while in the "Home 

 Park" and just as he was about to put on the finishing touches to 

 her toilet, which consisted in enveloping her in his time-worn 

 .overcoat, a strange dog appeared upon the scene. Her companions, 

 terrified by the intruder, stampeded and raced away toward the 

 race course, where the famous Goodwood Plate is run, hotly pur- 

 sued by the dressed-up pet, where they intermingled with another 

 flock. The shepherd in charge of the latter, as may be imagined, 

 was not a little startled at seeing the strange figure or apparition 

 and to this day all attempts to convince him that the little "ewe in 

 blue" was anything but a product of the celestial or infernal re- 

 gions have been futile. The ewe succumbed to the fatigue oc- 



