OVI 



OVI 



of two justices. By 9 George III. c. 37, 

 $ 7, they me to forfeit 10s. or ~20s. for pay- 

 ing the poor in bad money. 



OVERT act. In the case of treason, is 

 compassing 1 or imagining the death of the 

 King ; this imagining must be manifested 

 by some open act ; otherwise, being only 

 an act of the mind, it cannot fall under 

 any judicial cognizance. Bare words are 

 held not to amount to an overt act, unless 

 put into writing ; in which case they are 

 then held to be an overt act, as arguing a 

 more deliberate intention. No evidence 

 is to be admitted of any overt act, that is 

 not expressly laid in the indictment, 7 

 Will. c. 3. 



OVIPAROUS, a term applied to such 

 animals as bring forth their young, ab ovie, 

 from eggs ; as birds, insects, &c. 



OVIS, the sheep, in natural history, a 

 genus of mammalia of the order Pecora. 

 Generic character: the horns hollow, 

 wrinkled, turning backwards and out- 

 wards into a spiral form; lower front 

 teeth eight; no canine teeth. There are 

 nine species mentioned by Shaw. The 

 following are most worthy of attention. 



O. ammon, or the Siberian sheep, or 

 the argali. The argali, or wild sheep, is 

 the presumed origin of all the domestic 

 sheep. It is found on the immense chain 

 of mountains reaching through the mid- 

 dle of Asia to the Eastern Ocean. In 

 Barbary, Corsica, Sardinia, Greece, and 

 Kamtschatka, it is also to be met with, 

 and in some of these places in great 

 abundance. Its size is that of a fallow 

 deer. In Siberia the argali is fond of 

 ranging the highest elevations, and is 

 generally seen in small flocks. As 

 winter approaches, they move down- 

 wards into the plains, and instead of the 

 shoots of the mountain plants, which were 

 before their food, eat grass and other ve- 

 getables. They are extremely fond of 

 salt, and will often remove the earth 

 which covers this substance, in consider- 

 able quantities, in order to obtain it. 

 Their horns grow to a vast size and 

 weight. These animals are timid in a very 

 great degree ; but the males will occa- 

 sionally engage in fierce conflicts with 

 each other, and, it is said, endeavour 

 to precipitate each other down the 

 steeps of the mountains which they in- 

 habit. They move over these rugged 

 eminences with great agility, and the 

 chase of them is difficult and fatiguing. 

 They are supposed to live to the age of 

 fourteen years. 

 O. aries, or the common sheep. This 



animal, in its state of complete domesti- 

 cation, appears equally stupid as it is 

 harmless, and seems nearly to justify the 

 observations of Buflfon, who describes it 

 as one of the most timid, imbecile, and 

 contemptible of quadrupeds. When, 

 sheep, however, have an extensive range 

 of pasture, and are left in a considerable 

 degree to depend upon themselves for 

 food and protection, they exhibit more 

 respectability of character. A ram has 

 been seen in these circumstances to at- 

 tack and beat off a large and formidable 

 dog, and even a bull has been felled by 

 a stroke received between his eyes, as 

 he was lowering his head to receive his 

 adversary on his horns and toss him into 

 the air. When individual efforts are 

 unequal to the danger, sheep will unite 

 their exertions ; placing the females and 

 their young in the middle of an irregular 

 square, the rams will station themselves 

 so as to present an armed front on every 

 side to the enemy, and will support their 

 ranks in the crisis of attack, harrassing 

 the foe by the most formidable and some- 

 times fatal blows. Sheep display consi- 

 derable sagacity in the selection of their 

 food, and in the approach of storms they 

 perceive the indications with accurate 

 precision, and retire for shelter always to 

 the spot which is best able to afford it. 

 The domestic sheep is scarcely ever 

 found (excepting in temperate latitudes) 

 in a state approaching to perfection. In 

 hot regions its wool degenerates into a 

 species of hair, and in rigid climates, 

 though the wool is fine at the roots, it is 

 coarse towards the surface. The flesh 

 of the animal, when it passes to great de- 

 grees, whether of heat or cold, appears 

 also proportionably deteriorated. The 

 wool of sheep in no country of the world 

 attains greater excellence for the pur- 

 poses of manufacture, without the assist* 

 ance of any mixture, than in England. 

 That of the Spanish breed is finer, but 

 too short for manufacture by itself, and 

 comparatively trifling in weight. Since 

 England attained any considerable ad- 

 vance in civilization, its breed of sheep 

 has been admired for the excellence of 

 their fleeces, . which constituted the 

 grand material of national industry, 

 wealth, and revenue. At present the 

 worth of the wool annually shorn in 

 that country is considerably upwards of 

 two millions, and when wrought pro- 

 duces an amount of nearly seven mil- 

 lions sterling; facts which exhibit the 

 importance of the cultivation of that ani- 

 mal, which is tiie source of all this opu- 



