ORDER RUMINANTIA. 331 



Among the European varieties 



The Many-horned of Iceland, seems to be derived from 

 the Russian policerate breed. They are small, with very 

 irregular horns, three, four, or five, in number, never spiral, 

 but variously bent. They have a covering of long coarse 

 hair, beneath which lies a coarse thick wool, and next to 

 the skin a finer down. Their colour is rusty-brown ; the 

 legs very small, and the hoofs narrow, long, and irregular, 

 seem to acquire this form from their continual residence 

 upon snow, which does not wear them down. Some of 

 these sheep are housed in winter, but others are nearly 

 wild, shifting for themselves, and often buried under the 

 snow for many days. Yet a good ewe yields from two to 

 six quarts of milk per day, from which butter and cheese 

 is made. They are not shorn, the fleece coming off at 

 once, when the young wool is somewhat advanced (about 

 the month of May). 



There is, besides, in Iceland, a large white breed, with 

 similar horns as the former, but probably obtained by 

 crossing with some continental race. 



In Corsica the white policerate race, with coarse 

 straight wool and small ears, seems derived from the Bar- 

 bary breed. 



A second race of Europe, with horns of a peculiar cha- 

 racter, so as to have been regarded as forming a distinct 

 species, and named Strepsiceros by the moderns, is the 

 Cretan. The animals are of handsome form, with long 

 horns, having a strong ridge in the front ; the Ram is dis- 

 tinguished by having them usually in the form of a com- 

 plete spiral circle at the base, and then three additional 

 spiral twists ascending vertically ; the ears are small, 

 drooping ; the tail long ; and the whole body covered with 

 undulating wool, of rather a coarse quality ; the face and 

 legs are often speckled, or even entirely black. In the fe- 

 males the horns are divergent, straight, and twisted into 



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