138 PLATE I. 



This animal," says Dr. Parry, " seems buried in wool, it 

 4 crests on the forehead almost as low as the eyes and on the 

 " cheeks, covers their bellies, and envelops their hind legs and 

 " sometimes their fore legs down to their very hoofs." 



The length of the staple or filament, is from two to somewhat 

 more than three inches, being much alike on the shoulder 

 and on the rump : the wool of the ram is generally esteemed 

 the coarsest and longest, that of the ewe the finest and shortest, 

 and that of the wether in both respects, between the two former. 



In proof of this fact it appears by Dr. Parry's excellent treatise 

 on Merino sheep, that " this breed has been naturalized in Swe- 

 " den, Denmark, Prussia, Saxony, Silisia, Hungary, Austria, 

 " Hanover, Holland, England, Bayreuth, Anspatch, Wirtem- 

 " burg, Baden, France, Switzerland, Piedmont, the Cape of Good 

 " Hope, and New Holland, comprehending a range of latitude 

 w from 59 20 ' North to *4 South, and includes countries some 

 ; of which are elevated, others low ; some dry, others swampy ; 

 " some open, others inclosed and woody ; some rich, others poor ; 

 u some hqk others temperate, and others intensely cold : In one 

 " country this breed is exposed during the whole year to the ex- 

 < ternal air, and to all the vicissitudes of weather, and exercises 

 " itself at will. In another it is constantly housed during the 

 " night, and sheltered from every storm, and for six or seven 

 " months never uses its limbs or inhales the open air, but during 

 u a part of the middle of every fine day, and even in Spain, many 

 " of the finest of the Merino breed never travel. 



The food of this race is as various as its climate and exer- 

 14 cise : here it lives the whole year chiefly on natural and fresh 

 grass ; there it obtains in winter, the addition of hay : in Spain 

 " it feeds not only on the fine herbage of the mountains, but on 

 " the succulent grass of the richest meadows, and occasionally on 

 the leaves of vines and other trees, and all the variety of plants 

 * in the fallow, or stubble fields. In other countries it is vari- 

 < ously fed on clover, Lucern, Sainfoin, Burnet, vetches, succory, 

 V reeds, the leaves of different trees, and the haum of plants, all 



