88 tHE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



up a living where even the black-faced hill race of 

 Scotland would starve. History credits it with 

 descent from sheep that escaped from a wrecked 

 Spanish galleon when Drake scattered the proud 

 Armada ; but doubt may be thrown upon that sup- 

 position, which has been conjecturally used by 

 chroniclers whose researches have led to no definite 

 conclusion. The same theory is held with regard 

 to the black-faced sheep of Scotland. . . . Although 

 in its later years the Herdwick is a light-coloured 

 sheep, the lambs are born with black faces and legs, 

 the only bit of white apparent being round the tips 

 of the ears. At three years old the sheep has 

 changed from a dark colour to a steel-grey. . . . 

 The flocks are wintered on the lowlands, but their 

 home is on the bare rock-crowned hills," 



It may be added that there formerly existed in 

 the neighbourhood of Seathwaite a strain of Herd- 

 wicks with fourteen pairs of ribs, instead of the 

 usual thirteen. 



The well-known mountain sheep rendered fami- 

 liar to all by the paintings of Sir Edwin Landseer 

 were termed by Professor Low * the black- faced 

 heath breed, but since they are mainly characteristic 

 of the mountainous districts of Scotland, they are 

 better designated black-faced Highland. Although 

 Low believed that these striking sheep (pi. iv. fig, i ) 

 found their way into Scotland by way of the 

 * Domesticated Animals of the British Islands, 2nd ed., p. 84. 



