250 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



all become as tame as the proverbial "pet lamb," some 

 species notably the Barbary wild sheep and the Indian 

 burrhel become more markedly friendly than others. 

 All, wild goats and wild sheep alike, have short, smooth 

 coats, though the Barbary sheep grows a woolly mane ; 

 but there is under wool in the fur of all the sheep, which 

 care in domestication would increase. The tame species 

 have lost their speed and agility on the English fields, 

 but not on the Alpine pastures, where some of the 

 breeds are not unlike the surviving wild species, the 

 moufflons of Sardinia. Even in England there still 

 remains one rare local variety, the Wiltshire sheep, 

 which is so active, long-legged, and free from woolli- 

 ness that it might easily be mistaken for a wild species ; 

 and in all probability it closely resembles the original 

 ancestor of our British breeds. 



It is tempting and easy to imagine "lost" animals 

 from which our tame ones have sprung. But it seems 

 highly probable that the majority of our domestic 

 animals may be traced to ancestors almost identical 

 with wild species still existing ; and they themselves 

 might still have been indistinguishable from those wild 

 ancestors if their intermediate progenitors had not been 

 caught and tamed by man. 



