266 



TBETH OF THE SHEEP. 



The proper mode of managing horns at sheaiing, was 

 mentioned at page 189. I am not aware that they are subject 

 to any diseases except those caused by fracture. They are 

 sometimes broken in fighting; and I have seen an old ram 

 ■which had one knocked clean from his head by the charge of 

 a ram from behind, ■while another occupied his attention in 

 front. The bleeding is Tery considerable in such cases, but a 

 tarred rag securely bound over the part to keep a'way flies 

 and irritating substances is all that is necessary. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. a. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 



TEETH OF THE SHEEP. 



Fig. 6. 



The Teeth. — The sheep has thirty-t-wo teeth — eight 

 incisors in front of lower ja^w, and six molars on each side in 

 the upper and lo'wer ja'w. The lamb at birth has two incisor 

 teeth •visible, or pressing through the gums. Usually before 

 it is a month old it has eight comparatively short, narrow 

 ones, as in Fig. 1. At about a year old, though sometimes 

 not until the fourteenth or sixteenth month, the two central 

 "lamb teeth" are shed and replaced by t-wo "broad teeth," 

 ■which gradually attain their full size. The sheep is tl^n 

 termed a yearling, or "yearling past." Two lamb teeth 

 continue to be shed annually and replaced by broad teeth, 

 until the sheep has eight incisors of second growth, when it is 

 termed "full mouthed." Fig. 2 represents "the mouth" of a 

 yearling past ; Fig. 3 of a two-year-old past ; Fig. 4 of a three- 

 year-old past, and Fig. 6 of a four-year-old past.* Fig. 5 is a 

 back or inside vie'w of the teeth of a three-year-old, showing 

 the narro-w and dwindled appearance of the two last lamb 



* Tlie Engiisli, connting from the periods wlien eacli new pair of incisoi^ become 

 fvUy developed, usually speak of two broad teetb as indicating a two-year-old, four a 

 tliree-year-old, six a four-year-old, and cigbt a flve-year-old. 



