PART IV— JUDGING SHEEP. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



THE ANATOMY OP THE SHEEP. 



A study of the anatomy of the sheep, and that of the ox, 

 shows a close resemblance between them. In the size and 

 skin covering are the most marked differences, otherwise 

 these two great classes of animals have much in common. 

 Lydekker states ^ that the features by which sheep are dis- 

 tinguished from oxen or cattle are as follows : " In the first 

 place, sheep as a whole are smaller animals than oxen, al- 

 though the largest sheep, such as the Central Asian Argali, 

 is considerably bigger than the anoa or dwarf buffalo of 

 Celebes, the smallest member of the ox group. Then, again, 

 they usually carry their heads higher, and considerably 

 elevated above the line of the back. In place, too, of the 

 broad, naked, moist, undivided muzzle of the oxen, sheep 

 have a verticallj'' cleft, narrow snout completely covered 

 with short hair, except on the margins of the nostrils and 

 lips. Very generally there is a small sub-orbital face gland, 

 situated in a shallow depression in the lachrymal bone of the 

 skull, and frequently known as the tear-gland or larmier. 

 Sheep also differ from living oxen in that when horns 

 are developed in the females, as is usually the case among 

 the wild species, they are very much smaller than those 

 of the males, from which they generally also differ consider- 

 ably in shape." 



The skeleton of the sheep, notwithstanding its resem- 

 blance to that of the ox, has certain interesting features. 

 Considerable variation exists in the number of bones in the 



^The Sheep and Its Cousins, 1912, p. 12. 



361 



