SHEEP. 



227 



devices is to seek for spots on the lee-side of a ridge where the currents of air meet. 

 Here, in otherwise favourable positions, they are quite unapproachable." Occa- 

 sionally wild mouflon will desert their own kin to live among tame sheep ; while 

 sometimes also a motherless domestic lamb has been known to seek companionship 

 among a flock of mouflon. Evidently, therefore, the wild sheep are very closely 

 related to our domesticated breeds. 



DOMESTIC SHEEP (Ovis aries). 



Although from the similarity in the form and structure of their horns there 

 can be no doubt that the domestic races of sheep are more nearly allied to the 

 mouflon, Armenian wild sheep, and urial, than to those mentioned hereafter, yet 

 we are at present quite in the dark as to their origin ; and it is an open question 

 whether we ought to regard the various domesticated breeds as derived from a 

 single, or from several, original wild stocks. The most important features by which 

 most domestic races of sheep differ from their wild cousins are the length of the 

 tail, and the substitution of a coat of wool for one of hair. No wild sheep except 

 the under-mentioned Barbary sheep, which has horns of a totally different type, is 

 furnished with a long tail ; but it has been suggested that the long tails of the 

 domestic breeds are due to a kind of degeneracy, although, it must be confessed 

 that this does not much advance matters. Unfortunately, geology does not help 

 us much in this investigation ; although it is ascertained that the inhabitants of 

 the ancient Swiss lake- villages were possessed of a breed of sheep characterised by 

 their small size, long thin legs, and goat-like horns. 



Domestic sheep vary greatly in the character of their horns. Thus while in 

 the Dorset breed these appendages are present in both sexes, and of nearly equal 

 size in each, in some forms only the males are provided with horns, while in other 

 breeds, like the Southdown, they are absent in both sexes. On the other hand, 

 there is a tendency among some breeds to produce additional pairs of horns, so 

 that we may have four-horned, and even eight-horned, sheep. When there is more 

 than one pair of horns, they arise from a peculiar elevated crest on the frontal 

 bones. In the Wallachian breed the horns of the rams, as Mr. Youatt remarks, 

 spring almost perpendicularly from the frontal bone, and then take a beautiful 

 spiral form ; in the ewes they protrude nearly at right angles from the head, and 

 then become twisted in a singular manner. 



One of the most remarkable types of domestic sheep is character- 

 Fiat- tailed Sheep. . 



ised by the tail being flattened, and either of great length or 



abnormally shortened. It has been considered that these sheep indicated a distinct 

 aboriginal form, but against this view may be quoted Mr. Darwin's observation 

 that their drooping ears are indicative of long domestication. On the other hand, 

 the nature of the pelage in the Eastern and Ethiopian varieties of these breeds, is 

 suggestive of a more intimate relationship with a wild ancestral stock. 



In Asia Minor, Syria, and parts of Arabia, the flat-tailed sheep have their 

 tails of enormous size, sometimes reaching a weight of from 40 to 50 Ibs. So 

 long, indeed, is the tail, that it actually trails upon the ground, and is frequently 

 supported by little sledges in order to prevent it from incommoding its owner. 



