500 THE COMMON SHEEP. 



Sheep are gregarious animals, and where the foremost of 

 the flock leads all follow in succession, and thus they often 

 rush into the very danger which they wish to avoid. " The 

 more the sheep is neglected and allowed to run wild, and the 

 less its range of pasturage is circumscribed, the more will it 

 acquire habits of independence, and the more will its instincts 

 be drawn forth and put into exercise. In the wilder and 

 mountainous districts of England, the sheep will unite in self- 

 defence and form a phalanx, in opposition to a strange dog, 

 or a prowling fox, the rams heading the array, and presenting 

 a formidable front to the foe, while the ewes and lambs crowd 

 together in the rear. Should the intruder venture within a 

 certain distance, they rush on him, and commence a violent 

 assault. This and many other facts on record seem to justify 

 the conclusion, that the sheep is not so utterly destitute of 

 intelligence as is usually imagined."* 



" There are few animals," says Mr. Youatt, (t who form so 

 steady and permanent an affection for each other. In 1837, 

 there was a poor sheep with a very bad foot-root, crawling 

 along the pasture in the Regent's Park. In this position it 

 was with difficulty that it procured its subsistence - } and the pain 

 which it suffered when forced to get on its feet was evidently 

 very great. I had heard that in such cases a companion, and 

 always the same one, will be seen near the sufferer. As I took 

 my daily walk through the park, I regularly sought out the 

 friends, and I fully satisfied myself that it was always the 

 same faithful adherent by whom the cripple was solaced and 

 watched." 



In the period of sacred history, it was the custom to give 

 names to sheep, so that when the shepherd wished to move 

 the flock, he called them by name, and they immediately 

 obeyed the call. It would seem that in large flocks it was 

 only a portion of them, probably the leaders, or rams, that 

 were so docile as to come at a call ; and it was perhaps quite 

 enough that only a few should be so obedient, as the others 

 * The Menageries (1840), vol. iii. p. 389. 



