3718 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 arr 
—_ WG 
SS WSS mN Ws 
ot areddish 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 oceupy 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 
norns 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. 
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