SOME PECULIAR AFRICAN BREEDS 229 



Later on Mr. Gaillard suggests that the Pre- 

 historic long-legged sheep may have been the 

 parent form of the zackel-sheep, referred to in 

 chapter v., remarking that the latter may have 

 been the product of crossing the former with the 

 Egyptian fat-tailed breed. This view was based to 

 a considerable extent on the belief that the zackel- 

 sheep was a native of Crete, which, as we have 

 seen,* is denied by Dr. Keller. Another difficulty 

 is the fact that the zackel-sheep has upright ears, 

 whereas those of the long-legged breeds are pendent. 

 Moreover, if, as Dr. Fitzinger believes, the zackel- 

 sheep is related to the Hungarian rasko-sheep, it 

 certainly cannot have any near affinity with the 

 long-tailed breeds. 



One of the most remarkable of all domesticated 

 breeds is the so-called zunu or goitred sheep of 

 Angola, which has been named Ovis steatinion, or 

 O. longipes steatinion, and of which a good descrip- 

 tion and figure were given by Colonel Hamilton 

 Smith in Griffith's Animal Kingdom} By Dr. 

 Fitzinger ^ this breed was suggested to be the result 

 of a cross between the Congo long-tailed and the 

 Malagasy fat-rumped sheep, but there is not a tittle 

 of evidence in favour of the second element in this 

 mixed parentage. 



In many respects this sheep resembles the long- 



' Supra, p. 138. ' Vol. iv. p. 327. 



' Op. cit., p. 215. 



