CHAPTER XI 



SOME PECULIAR AFRICAN BREEDS 



In addition to possessing representatives of the f3.t- 

 tailed and fat-rumped types, Africa is the home 

 of certain very remarkable breeds of domesticated 

 sheep quite unlike those of any other parts of the 

 world, if we except a few instances in which some 

 of the breeds have been introduced into other 

 countries, where they have in certain cases pro- 

 duced hybrids with the native stock. These African 

 sheep are divisible into three main groups, namely, 

 the lop-eared, the long-legged, and the maned sheep, 

 which Dr. Fitzinger regarded as representing as 

 many species, under the respective names of Ovis 

 catotis, O. longipes, and O jubaia, although there is 

 little doubt that they are nothing more than highly 

 specialised forms of O. aries. Among the features 

 indicative of specialisation in these breeds may be 

 noted the frequent loss of the horns in the rams 

 (as well as in the ewes), the replacement of the 

 wool by hair, the development of tags or wattles 

 on the throat, and the convexity of the nasal region, 

 or chaffron ; the length of the tail, which in some 



