THE PARNASSIAN SHEEP. 
Ovts ARIES. Var. 
THERE are two principal difficulties in the natural 
history of the Sheep, each involving questions of con- 
siderable importance, but neither of them admitting, in 
the present state of our knowledge, of a perfectly satis- 
factory solution. . The first relates to the propriety of 
the generic distinction between the Sheep and Goats, 
which naturalists have borrowed from the vulgar classi- 
fication, adopting it in many instances contrary to their 
own better judgment. The second has reference to the 
specific differences supposed to exist between the three 
or four distinct races that have been found in a state of 
nature, and to the claims which they severally possess 
to be regarded as the originals of the domesticated 
breeds. To these may be added a third, of no less 
general interest, in some measure dependent upon the 
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