OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 



SHEEP. 



The sheep on the downs this winter (1769) are very ragged, 

 and their coats much torn ; the shepherds say they tear 

 their fleeces with their own mouths and horns, and 

 they are always that way in mild, wet winters, being 

 teased and tickled with a kind of lice. 



After ewes and lambs are shorn, there is great confusion 

 and bleating, neither the dams nor the young being able to 

 distinguish one another as before. This embarrassment 

 seems not so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, 

 which may occasion an alteration in their appearance, as from 

 the defect of that notus ordo, discriminating each individual 

 personally ; which also is confounded by the strong scent of 

 pitch and tar wherewith they are newly marked ; for the 

 brute creation recognise each other more from the smell 

 than the sight ; and in matters of indentity and diversity 

 appeal much more to their noses than their eyes. After 

 sheep have been washed there is the same confusion, from 

 the reason given above. — White. 



RABBITS. 



Kabbits make incomparably the finest turf, for they not 

 only bite closer than larger quadrupeds, but they allow no 

 bents to rise ; hence warrens produce much the most 

 delicate turf for gardens. Sheep never touch the stalks of 

 grasses. — White. 



