THE MERINO BREED. 137 



remarkable for the delicacy of their constitution, their vora- 

 city, unthriftiness, and inferior power of secreting milk. The 

 same causes, it would appear, have produced the same effects. 

 Attention having been mainly directed in both cases to the 

 production of wool, the other properties were disregarded, of 

 hardiness and the power of yielding fat and milk. 



The Spanish Merinos, although retaining a certain degree 

 of wildness, are yet very docile in their tempers. No Sheep 

 place themselves more unreservedly under the guidance of 

 the shepherds ; and, although late in arriving at maturity, 

 and difficult to be fattened, they are readily satisfied with 

 dry and innutritious pastures. When put amongst other 

 Sheep, they keep together, generally on the higher grounds. 

 At night they form themselves into a circle, the rams and 

 stronger sheep being on the outside, retaining thus the in- 

 stincts which they had acquired in their native habitation. 

 They are incapable of bearing the same extremes of cold and 

 wetness as the hardy Mountain Sheep of Northern Europe ; 

 and yet they do not seem to be peculiarly affected by changes 

 of temperature, which, doubtless, their dense fleece enables 

 them to resist. 



The Spaniards, who by degrees subdued the Moorish king- 

 doms, neglected tillage, and attended chiefly to their flocks 

 and herds ; and then it was that those immense sheep-walks 

 seem to have been formed, which cover so great a part of the 

 country. Writers of the middle ages speak of the large flocks 

 possessed by individuals, amounting to thirty or forty thou- 

 sand each. Whether it was found that the continued heat 

 of the southern parts of Spain was less favourable to the fine- 

 ness of the fleece, or whether convenience or necessity led to 

 a change of pasture during the summer months, a practice 

 was early established of driving the flocks of sheep to the 

 cooler countries of the north in summer, and back to the 

 southern pastures on the approach of winter. These migra- 

 tory flocks are by some termed Transhumantes ; while the 



