l62 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



There are three chief reasons for this, and all of 

 them are of peculiar interest. In the first place, 

 ' a sheep is, as a rule, a timid and defenceless 

 animal, and at the same time is neither swift nor 

 cunning. It falls an easy prey to the meanest of 

 the wolf tribe. A single coyote or a fox-terrier 

 dog could destroy a flock of a thousand in a few 

 days. Secondly, it is found that the young lambs 

 and their mothers require especial care and nurs- 

 ing, and if they do not get it during lambing- 

 time the flock - owner will lose them by the 

 hundred. It is a common thing in the South 

 Downs for. the shepherd not to leave his flock 

 day or night during the whole lambing season. 

 Lastly, very few modern sheep shed their wool 

 naturally in the way that the horse and other 

 animals shed their thick winter coats. 



There was exhibited at the first great Inter- 

 national Exhibition in 1851 a seven-year-old 

 Southdown ewe which had never been shorn. 

 Its enormous burden of wool hung to the ground, 

 and it would have been about as capable of 

 getting about as a man covered with a dozen 

 thick overcoats. It is ciuite plain that such a 

 creature could not get its living in the open fields 

 unless it were regularly shorn. Now, if we seek 



