A PECULIAR LEGLESS SHEEP. 



CHARLES R. STOCKARD. 



A peculiar sport lately appeared in a flock of sheep in Nash 

 County, N. C. 1 During the early part of February a black ewe 

 gave birth to a lamb by a white ram ; the offspring was entirely 

 devoid of all external indications of limbs and was black in color 

 like its mother. This lamb has a perfect head and body with the 

 usual long tail, and has been in a healthy condition since birth. 

 It was fed on milk from a bottle for the first month or two, but 

 is now able to eat grass and appears normal in size and other 

 respects except for its apodal condition. The movements of this 

 animal are limited; it can right itself if turned on its back and can 

 twist its body about to some extent, but is entirely incapable 

 of any progressive movements (Figs, i and 2, PI. XIII.). 



Photographs and descriptions of the lamb indicate that it is a 

 sport or mutation rather than a merely deformed monster. 



Another legless lamb almost identically like the first one was 

 born in this same flock three months later. The two lambs had 

 the same father (there being only one ram with the flock), but 

 different mothers. This second lamb was a white male, and un- 

 fortunately was killed. 



The parent ram is an old sheep, but no definite or authentic 

 records of his previous offsprings can be obtained. It is a pecul- 

 iar coincidence, however, that two of his young in so short a 

 time should have shown this remarkable legless condition. Such 

 a fact suggests, from the rather insufficient evidence, that this 

 male has within his germ-cells a tendency to produce these lambs 

 without legs. 



The occurrence of the legless animals recalls the classical case 

 of the ancon ram, a sheep with short crooked legs, that was born 

 in Massachusetts about 1791. The ancon race was produced 

 from this one ram by crossing at first with common sheep. The 



1 1 have not up to this time been so fortunate as to personally observe these sheep, 

 but the photographs and descriptions have been obtained from an entirely reliable 

 source. 



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