68 THE SHEEP. 



Breed, from a character which distinguishes it from every 

 other in Wales. 



This race of Sheep is spread over the whole of Wales, and 

 is truly the distinctive breed of the country. The animals 

 are of small size, usually weighing from 5 Ib. to 7 lb. the 

 quarter, when grown and fat. They are of the long-tailed 

 variety of Sheep, thus agreeing with the Sheep of the Celtic 

 nations of Europe, and differing from those of the Scandina- 

 vians. The males have horns, which are thin, slightly curved, 

 and bent backwards ; the females are generally destitute of 

 horns, and sometimes the males. Their noses are white, or 

 pink-coloured. They have lengthened hair beneath the throat 

 like a beard. Their figure is very slender, and their posterior 

 limbs long, as if to fit them for vaulting as well as running. 

 Their neck is thin, and thrown back in the manner of the 

 Antelope or Deer. The fur of the face and body is white, 

 but sometimes, as in almost all breeds of Sheep, individuals 

 wholly brown or black present themselves. 



These Sheep have all the wild characters of a mountain 

 breed. They are of wandering habits, and range from pas- 

 ture to pasture ; they prefer the plants of mountains to the 

 more succulent and nutritive herbage of plains ; they delight 

 to browse on the leaves of the ivy, and on the shoots of bitter 

 shrubs, and they rise upon their hinder legs to reach them 

 after the manner of the Goat. They are fond of taking their 

 station on elevated points, and making their way amongst 

 crags and cliffs. They are wary and timid, and, like the 

 wilder Sheep of the mountain summits, give notice of ap- 

 proaching danger by a signal. They steal down from the 

 hills at night, and make inroads into the fields of wheat and 

 other green plants. They are with difficulty confined by arti- 

 ficial barriers, leaping over walls, and making their way 

 through the interstices of hedges ; nay, sometimes they have 

 been known, when driven to a distance, to escape from the 

 vigilance of their keepers, and regain their native mountains. 

 They are driven to London and other markets of consump- 



