SHORT-TAILED EUROPEAN BREEDS 63 



south of Norway. The colour of the fleece appears 

 to be variable ; and there is a tendency among the 

 rams to develop four horns, and in some cases, it 

 is said, even five or six. According, however, to 

 Mr. Elwes,* rams with five and six horns are only 

 met with in parks, and even four-horned rams are 

 rare in the Hebrides. The one shown in plate 

 iii. fig. 2 was living some years ago in South 

 Uist, while the head with enormous horns shown in 

 fig. I of the same plate is that of a ram kept by 

 Sir Basil Brooke in Colebrook Park, County Fer- 

 managh, which died in the early part of 191 2. 



A correspondent quoted by Mr. H. J. Elwes, after 

 stating that there is no pure breed of four-horned 

 sheep at the present day in the Hebrides, proceeds 

 to observe that " no doubt there is a strain of four- 

 horned blood running through great numbers of 

 the sheep in these parts, but I know no one who 

 will assert he has a breed of such animals. My 

 opinion is that all the four-horned ewes that now 

 crop up, or have cropped up in recent years, are 

 simply throwbacks. It is said that at one time, 

 long ago, all the sheep in these parts were four- 

 horned, and that they were replaced by the black- 

 faced from the Borders, but it would require some 

 research to prove this. It is yearly becoming more 

 and more difficult to procure a good specimen of 

 a four-horned ram ; but I have proved one thing, 

 ' op. at., p. 31. 



