504 THE COMMON SHEEP. 



although the poets, and others who have seen it growing pro- 

 fusely in those places where well flavoured mutton is fed, have 

 spoken of it as the favourite food of these animals. In Spain, 

 the Merino sheep have been noticed, when grazing leisurely, 

 always to prefer the finest grasses, never touching the aromatic 

 plants j and if the wild thyme and such herbs be entangled 

 with the grass, they will separate them with great dexterity : 

 but if interrupted, as happens on the approach of rain, when 

 the dogs are set on to drive them to shelter, the sheep, in their 

 hurry, will devour everything even poisonous plants. Weston, 

 in his Tracts on Agriculture (1773, p. 115), conjectures that the 

 smell of the wild thyme may be of service to the flock, and 

 therefore recommends the introduction of it into pastures where 

 it is wanting. Linnaeus asserts that, although horses and cows 

 refuse to browse upon the yew-tree, yet sheep will do so without 

 injury j but this appears to be incorrect, for several instances 

 have occurred in England of sheep dying in consequence of 

 having browsed upon it.* A few years ago Juiiius Redivivus, 

 an anonymous writer on Temperance Societies, stated in the 

 Mechanics' Magazine, that he knew a pet sheep, which had 

 lived from its youth on board a vessel, where its nature 

 became much altered under the care of the sailors. " It would 

 eat tobacco and drink grog, and had no objection to a piece 

 of fruit tart or meat pie j in addition to this it would nibble 

 a sailor's shirt to pieces, and butt down the cabin boy for 

 interfering with him." 



Borlase, in his Natural History of Cornwall (1758), ascribes 

 the superior flavour of the Cornish mutton to the sheep feeding 

 upon snails, meaning, I suppose, that they swallow them not 

 by choice but unavoidably along with the herbage. " Snails 

 of the turbinated or spiral kind," he says, " spread themselves 

 over the sandy plains early in the morning, and whilst they 

 are seeking their own food among the dews, yield a most 

 fattening nourishment to the sheep." 



The physical constitution of the sheep may be said to be 

 * See Phillips's Sylva Florifera (1823), vol. ii. p. 294. 



