September 20, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



381 



Finally a large expedition was sent about 

 October, 1894. The hunt occupied the greater 

 part of a day, and at last the men succeeded 

 in driving the ewe into a place from which 

 there was no escape, and she was brought to 

 Beiun Bhreagh and added to our flock as !N"o. 

 256. 



She turned out to be a black ewe, two years 

 old, with six well-developed and functional 

 nipples, well arranged in pairs. She was 

 mated with the black ram No. 41Y (the off- 

 spring of the other six-nippled ewe No. 76), 

 so that any lamb she might have would com- 

 bine the blood of the two six-nippled ewes, 

 No. Y6 and No. 256. 



Of course the results of the union were 

 eagerly looked for, but in the spring of 1895 

 the ewe. No. 256, escaped and lambed in the 

 woods. 



Then there was a hunt to save the possibly 

 six-nippled lamb from the foxes that had oc- 

 casionally taken toll of our flock. It took 

 quite a large number of men, in skirmishing 

 order, to re-capture the run-away, but the 

 lamb turned out, after all, to be a black ewe 

 with only four nipples! 



Although the black six-nippled ewe (No. 

 256) lived for many years on Beinn Bhreagh, 

 and gave us twelve lambs in all (including, 

 by-the-bye, five sets of twins) we never got a 

 six-nippled lamb from her — unless indeed her 

 lamb No. 940 might be so considered. 



This lamb (No. 940) was at first noted as 

 a five-nippled ewe; but one of her nipples, in- 

 stead of being round like the others, was 

 greatly elongated in cross section, and had 

 two distinct orifices. It was evidently formed 

 by the union of two distinct nipples into one. 

 After lambing, both of the Siamese-twin 

 nipples were found to yield milk ; and we have 

 the ewe now recorded on our books as a six- 

 nippled sheep. 



In the autumn of 1895 the black six-nippled 

 ewe No. 256 was again mated with the black 

 four-nippled ram, No. 41Y; and in the spring 

 of 1896 gave us black twins; one, a female 

 with four nipples, and the other a male, No. 

 626, with five nipples. 



This five nippled ram. No. 626, not only 

 represented an advance in nipples over rams 

 formerly employed; but, in addition, he com- 

 bined in his own person the blood of the two 

 six-nijjpled ewes. No. 76 and No. 256. He 

 was, therefore, although black, used very ex- 

 tensively with the flock until white six-nippled 

 rams appeared among his offspring, when they 

 were substituted as the sires of the flock. 



No. 810 and No. 827 (born 1898) were the 

 first six-nippled rams employed in the flock; 

 and six-nippled rams have been used ever 

 since. In 1899, 25.6 per cent, of the lambs 

 born were six-nippled, but in 1900 the per- 

 centage, for some unaccountable reason, fell 

 to 4.4 per cent.; and the percentages in suc- 

 ceeding years, 1901, 1902 and 1903, were only 

 9.4 per cent., 9.6 per cent, and 11.1 per cent., 

 showing a very slow rate of increase in spite 

 of the fact that six-nippled rams had been 

 used exclusively in the flock since the autumn 

 of 1898. 



There had been no difiieulty in producing 

 the four-nippled variety of sheep, because we 

 had been able to obtain from surrounding 

 farmers sheep with four nipples already fully 

 developed to add to the flock, but in the case 

 of the six-nippled variety we were unable to 

 obtain this aid from the farmers. 



No six-nippled sheep were to be had for love 

 or money. We advertised for them and offered 

 large prices. We notified butchers to examine 

 the nipples of the sheep that came to them for 

 slaughter, etc., but all in vain. During a 

 period of thirteen years from the purchase of 

 ewe No. 256, the only six-nippled sheep we 

 were able to buy was a black ewe. No. 735, 

 with very poorly developed extra nipples, 

 which had been found by a butcher in Bad- 

 deck among the sheep purchased from farms 

 in close proximity to Beinn Bhreagh, and 

 which probably represented a leakage from 

 our flock. 



It will thus be seen that, as we were unable 

 to obtain six-nippled blood from outside, the 

 only way we could advance the formation of 

 a six-nippled variety of sheep seemed to be: 

 (1) To use six-nippled rams on the whole 

 flock; (2) to select from the six-nippled ewes 



