260 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, 
last, but of a still more complicated character, and 
embracing the combination of circumstances to which 
each of these breeds is indebted for its own peculiar 
qualities. The most important part of this inquiry, in 
an economical point of view, bears reference to the 
length and texture of the wool, and to its progressive 
developement, from the African Sheep, in which it is 
almost entirely wanting, to the Merino, whose fleece is 
wholly composed of long, thick, and fine wool, to the 
complete exclusion of the straight stiff hairs which 
predominate so greatly in the coat of the former breed. 
On this part of the subject it is by no means our 
intention to enter; our observations will be confined to 
those points which come more strictly under the head 
of natural history. 
A comparison of the most common breeds of domes- 
ticated Sheep and Goats unquestionably exhibits many 
striking differences, tending to confirm the broad dis- 
tinction that has been drawn between them. But these 
differences vanish almost entirely in those races which 
still exist in a wild state in various parts of both conti- 
nents, so that it becomes at length almost impossible 
to determine to which of the so-called genera many of 
these animals belong. They all agree in their habits 
and mode of life, in the details of their internal struc- 
ture, in form, stature, and general features; in their 
horns being formed of hollow, wrinkled, angular sheaths, 
supported by bony processes, having cavities within 
them communicating with the fcuitanee sinuses; in the 
number, character, ana form of their teeth; in their 
narrow and elongated muzzles without any waked space 
surrounding the nostrils ; and in the want of the subor- 
bital Hecine: and icine? to the knees so frequent 
among the Antelopes and Deer. The only particulars 
in fact in which they are said generically to differ con- 
