6o THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



and there are also some light areas on the limbs. 

 The throat of the rams carries a tuft of long hair 

 similar to one frequently developed in the mouf- 

 lon. In summer the fleece is comparatively short 

 and curly ; but when it has undergone the winter's 

 bleaching the tips of the individual hairs become 

 whitish. The wool itself, as in Shetland loaghtans, 

 is of fine and soft quality (unlike that of many 

 short-tailed sheep), and makes beautiful cloth. If 

 not shorn in the spring, the fleece is gradually shed 

 during the summer in large blanket-like masses ; 

 and in the Shetlands, Faroes, and Iceland it is the 

 practice, instead of clipping the sheep, to pluck 

 off the fleece piecemeal as it becomes sufficiently 

 loosened, 



Soa sheep are never four-horned, and are stated 

 to be smaller than formerly; Mr. H. J. Elwes^ 

 observes that the original breed of St. Kilda may 

 or may not have been the same, adding that in 

 former days none of them was four-horned. At 

 the present day half the Soa sheep are stated to be 

 blackish, and others are piebald ; about half the 

 ewes are horned. 



The small black so-called St. Kilda sheep kept 

 in several English parks appear to be of uncertain 

 and mixed origin in most cases, being more or less 

 crossed with black Welsh or other primitive breeds. 

 The rams have frequently — in some flocks usually 



' Scottish Naturalist, 191 2, p. 27. 



