Ill OF SHEEP 151 



are conceived later than this grow up small and 



14 weak. A sheep is pregnant for 150 days. Thus 

 birth takes place at the end of autumn, when the 

 air is temperate, and the grass, called forth by 

 the first showers, is beginning to spring up. As 

 long as the ram is serving there must be no change 

 in the water, ^ as a change makes the wool streaky 

 in colour, and damages the womb. When all the 

 ewes have conceived, you must again separate the 

 rams from the flock, for' by pestering sheep already 

 pregnant they do them harm. Again you must not 

 let ewes under two years old be covered, for if they 

 are, what is born of them is of no use, and the 

 mothers themselves are harmed. There is none 

 better for breeding than a three-year-old ewe. Ewes 

 are sometimes protected from the male by fastening 

 behind them small baskets made of rushes or some 

 other material. They are, however, more easily 

 kept safe if fed apart. 



15 As to the rearing of lambs: so soon as the ewes 

 begin to bear they are driven into stables set apart 

 for the purpose, and in them the new-born lambs 

 are put close to the fire until they have gained 

 strength. The ewes are then kept in these stables 



' Eadem aqua uti. Aristotle (Hist. An., iii, 12), discussing 

 the change of colour in animals, says: kox trepi tuq dxdac 

 2' iariv vcuto iroWaxov roiavra^ d irivovTa cat dxivaavTU fitra Tt)v 

 -Kociv T(k irpoftara^ fjUXavag ytvvCJm Toiii apvazy k.t.X. 



* lam. So Keil for the reading of the MSS. ita. But the 



I latter seems to make excellent sense: "they do harm to the 

 ewes which have thus become pregnant, by pestering them," 



