MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS 83 



breed, are to be found, with some slight local 

 variations, throughout the Welsh highlands, from 

 Glamorgan to Merioneth and Carnarvon. In their 

 active habits and capacity for thriving on poor 

 pasture, they retain traits of their wild ancestor. 

 They are quite distinct from the soft-woolled breed 

 of the lowlands. 



In Ireland the sheep of the Wicklow mountains 

 are considered to be nearly related to the Welsh 

 mountain breed, from which they differ by the 

 absence of horns in both sexes, as well as by their 

 white faces and legs. The latter feature is, how- 

 ever, evidently due to selection, as there is a marked 

 tendency to the development of black lambs, which 

 are always killed ; and it is probable that the loss 

 of horns is likewise due to selection. The wool, 

 although always more or less mingled with hair, 

 is soft, fine, and of considerable length. At high 

 elevations, where bogs and heath abound, these 

 sheep run smaller than at lower levels, and like- 

 wise develop a spinal crest of long hair like that of 

 the Welsh mountain breed ; the object of this crest 

 in both cases being, according to Professor D. Low,^ 

 to collect the moisture from the air and allow it to 

 run off without wetting the rest of the fleece. 

 Low also observes that "the lambs are born with 

 a provision against the wetness of the boggy soil, 

 there being a large growth of hair upon the parts 



* Domesticated Animals of the British Islands, 2nd ed., p. T^. 



