BOOK VII. 11. 4-III. I 



tinguished agriculturist, bought some of them and 

 transferred them to his estate, and, when he had 

 tamed them, mated them with " coated " ewes. 

 These produced in the first generation lambs with 

 coarse wool but of the same colour as their sires. 

 When these in their turn were coupled with Tarentine 5 

 ewes, they produced rams with a finer fleece. All 

 the descendants of these latter in their turn repro- 

 duced the soft wool of their dams and the colours of 

 their sires and grandsires. Columella used to claim 

 that in this way whatever outward appearance the 

 wild animals possessed was reproduced in the 

 second and later generations of their descendants, 

 while their savage nature was tamed. But I must 

 return to my subject. 



There are then two kinds of sheep, the soft -fleeced 

 and the shaggy-coated ; but, while there are several 

 points common to both kinds when you are buying 

 or looking after them, there are certain special 

 characteristics of the well-bred sheep which it is well 

 to observe. The following are generally the common 

 points to be looked for when you are buying flocks : 

 if whiteness of fleece is what pleases you most, you 

 should never choose any but the whitest rams, for a 

 dark lamb is often the offspring of a white ram, while 

 a white lamb is never bred from a red or brown sire. 



III. And so, if a ram has a white fleece, this is not it- Oi ti^e 

 self a reason for approving of it, but only if its palate rams?"^ ° 

 and tongue are also of the same colour as its wool ; for 

 if these parts of the body are black or spotted, the 

 offspring is either dark or even parti-coloured. The 

 same poet as I quoted above, amongst many other 



* nisi S : om. AB. 



237 



