I70 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



expansion and drooping of the ears ; the lengthen- 

 ing of the tail ; by the arching of the nasal bones 

 or chaffron ; and, last, by the wool changing from 

 white to dark-brown and black." 



Dr. Fitzinger,^ on the other hand, who appears 

 never to have seen Hodgson's paper (at all events, 

 he does not refer to it), regarded these features 

 as indicative of descent from specifically distinct 

 ancestors. He recognised, for instance, four distinct 

 species of these abnormally tailed sheep, namely the 

 fat-tailed Ovis plahira, as typified by the fat-tailed 

 breeds of North Africa, the long-tailed O. dolichura, 

 as represented by the Circassian sheep, the fat- 

 rumped O. steatopyga, of Central Asia, and the 

 peculiar O. pachycerca, as represented by the black- 

 headed breeds of Somahland, Nubia, and Southern 

 Arabia. 



Darwin,^ however, long since observed that all 

 these sheep " bear in their drooping ears the stamp 

 of long domestication." And in confirmation of the 

 view that the accumulation of fat in the caudal 

 region is merely a result of domestication, it may 

 be recalled that two of the ordinary British breeds 

 display a tendency to this feature.^ 



Hodgson, as we have seen, derived fat-tailed, 

 or dumba sheep from the short-tailed Tibetan and 



' " Uber die Racen des zahmen Schafers," Sitzber. Ak. WUs. 

 Wien, vol. xli. p. 151, i860. 



^ Animals and Plants under Domestication, 2nd ed., vol. i. p. 98. 

 ^ Supra, p. 118. 



