332 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



four turns on their own axis. Their colour is white, and 

 stature equal to the Common Sheep. 



The Wallachian breed is derived from the Cretan, and 

 resembles the old unimproved breed of England in form, 

 shape of the ears, and voluminous scrotum, but the wool, 

 though curling, is rather coarse, and straight on the thighs 

 and tail ; the horns are very long, marked with a promi- 

 nent ridge, diverging almost at right angles from the 

 head, and twisted, in a lax spiral form, into two turns and a 

 half. The breed is white. 



But the most important continental race of Europe is the 

 Merino. It is distinguished from British Sheep by bearing 

 wool on the forehead and cheeks : the horns of the Ram are 

 ponderous, the spiral curve, as in the Argali, turning for- 

 wards and laterally into an additional crook ; the head is 

 large ; the body rounded ; the chaffron not much raised. 

 There is a lax skin beneath the throat, which is, in Spain, 

 esteemed a mark, denoting a tendency to fine wool and a 

 heavy fleece : the females are without horns. This race 

 produces the wool of first quality for manufactures ; it is 

 abundant, very fine, soft to the touch, much packed, and 

 twisted into the form of screws ; oily, but shorter than in 

 the Common Sheep. The race, subdivided into breeds, is 

 extended over the greater part of Spain ; large flocks are 

 kept constantly travelling during the seasonable part of the 

 year, and pent up during the winter. The best breeds are 

 those of Cavagne and Negrate ; these are kept in pens 

 during the cold season, about Merida in Estremadura, on 

 the left of the Guadiana, and from thence they move about 

 the 15th of April, in flocks of two or three thousand, pass- 

 ing the Tagusat Almaras, proceeding towards Villa Costin, 

 Alfaro, and Espinas, to be shorn ; after which operation 

 they travel again towards the kingdom of Leon, where they 

 are divided into flocks of five hundred head, and distributed 

 on the grazing territory of Cervera, near Aquilos del 



