MEDIUM-TAILED CONTINENTAL BREEDS 131 



sheep, in which the horns are distinctly mouflon- 

 Hke. The sheep themselves are stated by the 

 donor of one of these skulls to have long buff wool, 

 with the under surface of the body and the limbs 

 black. 



Dr. C. Keller, in a memoir on the domesticated 

 animals of the Mediterranean Islands,^ states that 

 the Sardinian sheep show signs of affinity with 

 the wild urial of the Kopet-Dagh, on the Persian- 

 Turkestan frontier, and that he could find no 

 evidence of crossing with the wild mouflon. The 

 latter statement, as will be evident from what has 

 been written in chapter iii., is, however, not based 

 on fact. 



The sheep of France, apart, of course, from the 

 introduced Rambouillet merinos, according to Dr. 

 Fitzinger,* originally conformed more or less closely 

 to one general type, which also extended into Bel- 

 gium. These sheep are of medium size, and in 

 character to some extent intermediate between 

 merinos and German sheep, although nearer to 

 the latter than to the former, both in respect of 

 size and shape. The head is small and light, 

 with a narrow and bluntly pointed muzzle, a 

 strongly convex profile, and small, pointed, and 

 approximated ears, which incline somewhat side- 

 ways. As a rule, only the rams carry horns ; but 



' Neue Denks. Schiveis. Natfor. Ges., vol. xlvi. p. 128, 191 1. 

 ' Op. cit, p. 382. 



