MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS 79 



These breeds are collectively characterised by a 

 moderately long cylindrical tail, which reaches down 

 to the hocks, and is more or less evenly clothed 

 with wool all round, and lacks an accumulation of 

 fat at the root. The ears are generally small, ap- 

 proximated, and sharply pointed, with a tendency 

 to a sidewards and downwards inclination at the 

 tips. Horns may be either present or absent ; 

 when retained, those of the rams usually form a 

 laterally directed open spiral of one or two turns. 

 The horns of the Wallachian breed (described in 

 the next chapter) form, however, a corkscrew-like 

 or screw-like spiral, with a more or less upward 

 direction. In nearly all the horned British breeds 

 horns are common to both sexes, although smaller 

 in ewes than in rams, but in many continental 

 breeds they are retained only in the rams. The 

 fleece is always woolly. 



The more typical representatives of this group, 

 that is to say, the breeds with horns of the mouflon 

 type and the hornless breeds, are spread over the 

 whole of Southern and Central Europe, inclusive of 

 the British Isles, and they also occur in Hungary 

 in the form of the rasko sheep, which in some 

 degree constitutes a step in the direction of the 

 Wallachian sheep, and represents a subtype by 

 itself. In the lowlands of Asia they are replaced 

 by the fat-tailed and fat-rumped breeds. 



Apart from the short-tailed breeds of the Isle of 



