MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS 95 



generally manage to maintain themselves through- 

 out the year. Occasionally, it is said, these sheep 

 will paw away the snow, in order to reach the 

 grass beneath. They are essentially grazers, refus- 

 ing to browse on the shoots of heather, after the 

 fashion of the black-faced Highland. They are 

 also quieter in their habits and more amenable to 

 restraint than the latter, although still retaining 

 the independence of character common to all the 

 mountain breeds. In hardiness they have few 

 equals, let alone superiors. 



The old Norfolk sheep, which once occu- 

 pied the higher grounds of Norfolk, Suffolk, and 

 Cambridgeshire, was a long-bodied, long-legged, 

 muscular breed well adapted to subsist on the 

 sparse herbage to be met with in the heather-clad 

 districts of East Anglia. Both sexes carry horns, 

 which are relatively stout in the rams ; the face and 

 legs are clothed with short black hair ; and the 

 wool is fine and silky. It is by the length of the 

 body and limbs and this silkiness of the wool that 

 the Norfolk is chiefly distinguished from the black- 

 faced Highland breed, in which the wool is harsh, 

 wiry, and unsuited for felting. In modern times 

 the breed has been largely displaced by the South- 

 down, which may be a derivative from the Norfolk. 



These sheep are allied to the black-faced 

 Highland not only in physical characters, but 

 likewise in their fondness for feeding on the shoots 



