50 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



many-horned sheep are to be met with in Iceland, 

 the Isle of Man, and the Shetland Isles ; and, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Lydekker, it is the custom in the 

 former region for the shepherds to pluck the fleece 

 of the animals instead of shearing it, this being 

 done during the latter part of the year, when the 

 sheep are about to shed their coats. Sheep with 

 extra horns are to be met with also in India, and 

 several specimens, some of which had three horns, 

 and others four, were exhibited at the London 

 Zoological Gardens during the summer of 1906. 

 That these many-horned sheep had their origin in 

 a two-horned breed is indicated by a head shown in 

 the gallery devoted to domestic animals at the 

 British Museum (Natural History), which carries a 

 pair of horns of normal growth throughout the 

 greater part of their length, but each dividing into 

 two separate points from a distance of some eight 

 or ten inches from their extremities. 



Very remarkable horns are those of the Wal- 

 lachian sheep, which are closely twisted like a cork- 

 screw, and resemble those of the Himalayan wild 

 sheep or markhoor. Both sexes possess these appen- 

 dages, but those of the ewes are much smaller than 

 those of the rams. The fleece of the Wallachian 

 sheep is made into blankets ; and their skins, with 

 the wool attached, are utilised largely by the shep- 

 herds and peasants of Wallachia and Hungary for 

 clothing. 



In the fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep we have 

 some curious types which are characterised by the 

 great development of their caudal appendages. 



