498 





THE COMMON SHEEP. (Ovis Aries, Linn.) 



The varieties of the common sheep are innumerable, and so 

 widely do they differ from each other in external form and 

 clothing, that we know not which of them to regard as most 

 characteristic, most indicative of the original wild type, from 

 which they have descended. Most naturalists regard the wild 

 mouflon of Corsica (Ovis musimon} as the type of all domestic 

 sheep, but others consider it to be the type of merely those of 

 Europe, and that those of the East have descended from the 

 argali of Siberia (0. ammon). Whatever may have been the 

 type of our common sheep, there can be no doubt that they 

 are naturally mountainous animals. If left to themselves, it is 

 always observed that they prefer the hills and rocky mountains 

 to the low plains ; and in the former situations they thrive 

 better, although they acquire less flesh than in the more luxu- 

 riant valleys. In Scotland many of the sheep pastures are 

 from 2000 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea. The fine 

 natural sheep-walks forty miles in extent, called Brisbane 

 Downs, in New South Wales, are 2000 feet above it. In the 

 Cordilleras of South America, sheep are common and multiply 

 readily, and without any care, at an elevation of from 3300 to 

 8200 feet. 



