378 



MAMMALIA-SHEEP. 



small, and within their curve the ears are inclosed. Whenever the ears 

 escape from this seeming confinement, the animal exhibits much uneasi- 

 ness ; and difficult as it is for him to replace them, he never rests till it is 

 accomplished. On his back and sides he is nearly black ; the shoulders are 



of a reddish brown ; the posterior part of the body, the haunches, the hind 

 legs, the tail, the nose, and also the ears, which are rather large, are white. 

 There is likewise a white spot over each eye. 



One of the curious modifications produced by cultivation, in the domestic 

 sheep, consists in the augmentation of the number of its horns ; two, three, 

 or even four supplementary appendages of this description, being occasion- 

 ally procured in addition to the usual number. Under these circumstances, 

 the additional horns usually occupy the upper and fore part of the head, and 

 are of a more slender shape, and take a more upright direction than the 

 others ; thus approaching in character to those of the goats, while the true 

 horns retain more or less of the spiral curve that distinguishes those of the 

 sheep. There exists a strong tendency to the hereditary propagation of this 

 monstrosity, which is extremely frequent in the Asiatic races, but is also met 

 with in a breed that is common in the north of Europe, and is said to have 

 been originally derived from Iceland, and the Feroe islands. In the latter 

 case, it is unconnected with any other anomaly ; but in the flocks of the 

 nomad hordes of Tartary, it is usually combined with an enlargement of 

 the tail and adjacent parts, by the deposition of fat, frequently to an 

 enormous extent. Specimens of both varieties, separate and combined, 

 have formed part of the Society's collection at the farm on Kingston Hill, 

 to which most of the domesticated animals were removed during the sum- 

 mer of 1829. 



