SOME PECULIAR AFRICAN BREEDS 213 



cases may touch the ground, is likewise a specialised 

 character. In connection with the hairy nature of 

 the coat in some of these breeds, it is important to 

 mention that although this must be regarded as a 

 specialised feature, it is really a reversion to the 

 condition obtaining in the wild mouflon, due, it may 

 be, to climatic influences. 



Although all these breeds are now mainly or 

 exclusively African, they are not to be regarded 

 as the descendants of wild ancestors indigenous to 

 Africa, but are to be considered as of Asiatic origin ; 

 there being no evidence that Africa ever possessed 

 any species of wild sheep except the arui of the 

 northern provinces, which represents a type widely 

 different from ordinary sheep, and a Pleistocene 

 Algerian species. 



In addition to the three groups just mentioned, 

 the present chapter contains an account of a piebald 

 and frequently four-horned sheep which there is 

 considerable reason to believe originally came from 

 Africa. 



Perhaps the most remarkable of all these breeds 

 is the one to which Leo Africanus ' gave the name of 

 Adimain sheep, but which may be better known as 

 the lop-eared breed — Ovis aries catotis, if a scientific 

 designation be considered desirable. 



In size these remarkable sheep (pi. xv. fig. i) 

 are much larger than the fat-rumped breeds, and 



' Descript. Afric, vol. ii. p. 753. 



