CHAPTER X 



FAT-RUMPED SHEEP 



As the fat-tailed and long-tailed breeds display the 

 maximum caudal development, so the fat-rumped 

 group presents us with an example of the extent to 

 which the tail can degenerate. Although these 

 fat-rumped sheep, of which there are two types, 

 distinguished from one another by the nature of 

 the coat, the presence or general absence of horns, 

 and the degree of degeneration of the tail, are 

 markedly distinct from the fat-tailed group, the two 

 are in all probability closely related ; the degenera- 

 tion of the tail in the present g^oup being evidently 

 due to the deposition of fat on the buttocks in- 

 stead of on that appendage. Pallas regarded fat- 

 rumped sheep as being derived from the wild argali 

 {Ovis ammon) of Central Asia ; but it is more 

 probable that the urial {O. vignei) was the ultimate 

 ancestor of the fat-tailed and the fat-rumped group, 

 both of which were almost certainly differentiated 

 from a common domesticated stock. Nevertheless 

 the fat-rumped sheep was regarded by Fitzinger ^ as 

 a distinct species, under the name of Ovis steatopyga, 



* op. cit; vol. xxxviii. p. 138, 1859. 



'93 N 



