MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS 97 



Wiltshire was formerly the home of a breed of 

 badly made sheep resembling the last in their white 

 faces and legs, but carrying horns in both sexes, 

 and showing no marked superiority in size of the 

 rams over the ewes. The head was coarse, the 

 flanks were flat, and the limbs long and clumsy, 

 while the mutton was of only medium quality. 

 Moreover, from living on poor fodder, these sheep 

 fattened very slowly. On the other hand, their 

 wool was of remarkably fine quality ; and it was 

 probably from this character that Dr. Fitzinger, in 

 his articles on the breeds of domesticated sheep,^ 

 was led to regard the old Wiltshire as a cross 

 between the merino and the old Norfolk breed. 

 There seem, however, to be no valid grounds for 

 such a view. In the form of their horns, which 

 are stated to have turned back behind the ears 

 and about the cheeks, with a marked outward 

 direction at the tips, these sheep differed from all 

 other British breeds, and were in consequence 

 known as "crooks." By about the year 1837 the 

 breed had become more or less completely elimi- 

 nated, as the result of crossing with the South- 

 down and other strains, which ultimately led to the 

 development of the modern Hampshire down. 



Sheep more or less nearly identical with the old 

 Wiltshire, but having the legs and face in some 

 cases speckled, were once spread over the adjacent 



1 Sitzber. Ak. Wiss. Wien, vol. xxxix. p. 784, 1869. 



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