go THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



land, Welsh mountain, and soft-woolled breeds, the 

 black-faced Highland may still be classed as one of 

 the smaller or medium-sized types of sheep. 



Both sexes carry horns, which in rams often 

 form two complete turns of an outwardly directed 

 spiral ; heads with unusually fine horns being often 

 mounted as snuff-boxes, with a cairngorm set in the 

 tip of each horn. In ewes, the horns are small and 

 thin, forming only about one-half of a circle. The 

 face is clothed with hair, which may be either 

 wholly black or mingled black and white ; and the 

 legs are likewise dark, while there is also a tendency 

 to blackness in the fleece, which may be entirely 

 black. The chaffron is strong and prominent, with 

 unusually wide nostrils, and the ears are relatively 

 small and short. The coarse fleece is of the long- 

 woolled type, and hangs loosely on the body ; the 

 wool being best suited for making carpets and other 

 coarse descriptions of woollen goods. 



When bred at lower levels than ordinary, and 

 more especially in the case of the damp Yorkshire 

 moors, these sheep tend to deteriorate in size, and 

 likewise to lose their horns — particularly in the 

 ewes — and black faces. 



Unlike the heavier breeds of the low country, 

 these sheep are wild and impatient of restraint, 

 although not to the same degree as the Welsh 

 mountain breed. Subsisting largely on heather, 

 these sheep feed up to the level where the latter 



