CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



525 



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THE WALLACHIAN SHEEP. 



pounds, and which it is often necessary to support with a board set on wheels ! The fat of this 

 appendage is said to resemble marrow, and is often used instead of butter. Some of this breed 

 were brought into the United States fifty years ago, and a few were produced, the lambs being 

 of various colors, white, red, tawny, black, &c, but there was difficulty in propagating them, and 

 they have disappeared in mixtures with other breeds. 



The Persian Sheep, found in Persia, Tartary, and the neighboring regions, is a singular 

 variety, marked with an unsightly lump of fat on the croup. In Angola there are several peculiar 

 breeds, one of which, called the Zenu, or Goitred Sheep, has drooping ears, a convex forehead, 

 short hair, a brisket and dewlap like those of an ox, and two lobes consisting of hard, curdy fat 

 beneath the throat, appearing like goitres. These are, however, not defects or deformities, but 

 provisions of nature to sustain the animal at a season of the year when the earth, in the region it 



THE BROAD-TAILED SHEEP. 



nhabits, is parched, and vegetation withered or destroyed. In Tartary there is a breed called 

 be Astrachan Sheep, whose lambs, taken from the womb by killing the mother a short time 

 ,>efore maternity, yields a skin covered with beautiful curly hair, and which is sent to Russia, 

 * here it commands a high price. Some of them are of a glossy black, and are much valued. . 



In Southern Russia there is a breed called the Four-horned Sheep, of which the rams have four 

 ind sometimes five and even six horns : and in the same region there is a breed in which both 

 ,uale and female are altogether destitute of horns. 



