ZOOLOGICAL POSITION AND STRUCTURE 37 



chusetts, having short crooked legs and a long 

 back, like a turnspit-dog. From this one lamb 

 the otter or ancon semi-monstrous breed was raised ; 

 as these sheep could not leap over the fences, it 

 was thought that they would be valuable ; but 

 they have been supplanted by merinos, and thus 

 exterminated. The sheep are remarkable from 

 transmitting their character so truly that Colonel 

 Humphreys* never heard of 'but one questionable 

 case ' of an ancon ram and ewe not producing 

 ancon offspring. When they are crossed with 

 other breeds the offspring, with rare exceptions, 

 instead of being intermediate in character, perfectly 

 resemble either parent; even one of twins has 

 resembled one parent and the second the other." 



In this account, which is taken from the Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society for 181 3, Darwin refers 

 to the ancon breed as having been produced from 

 a single lamb. There is, however, another account 

 of the ancon sheep which appears to be fuller and 

 more explicit than any other. It occurs in the third 

 volume (p. 134) of T. Dwight's Travels in New 

 England and New York, published at New Haven, 

 Conn., in 1822, the journey to which it refers having 

 been undertaken about 1798. Some years before 

 this, runs the narrative, a ewe belonging to a 

 farmer at Mendon, about fourteen miles from 

 Worcester, Massachusetts, gave birth to twin 



• Joum. Royal Agricultural Society, vol. xx. pt. 2. 



