200 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
tail is longer than in other 
wild sheep, and in the males 
a large mane covers the chest. 
THE BURHAL, OR BLUE SHEEP 
This species possibly indi- 
cates the transition-point from 
the sheep to the goats. It 
was pointed out by Mr. Brian 
Hodgson that it had certain 
features more like the goats 
than the sheep, and _ later 
other writers laid stress on 
ae : structural differences of the 
aS same kind, both in skull and 
Deacon ber horns. It has not the dis- 
EO Oe See agreeable odour of the goats; 
There are several breeds of these sheep, some from China, some from Iceland, and others from Z ; . 
Sne afiee but the black markings which 
L 
Photo by HW’, P. Dando} —— 
separate the white of the belly 
from the brown of the flanks, and run down the front of the legs, are like those seen on some goats. 
The horns rise in a curve outwards and downwards. The largest are only some 30 inches long. 
Burhal are perhaps the commonest of all Asiatic wild sheep. They inhabit the whole 
length of the higher Himalayan Range, and are found over and round the Central Asian plateau 
as far north as Yarkand. The horns make two half-moons at right angles to the skull. Unlike 
some of the other wild sheep, burhal often climb the very highest ground of all. Much of 
the best burhal ground is above 17,000 feet high, and, as Mr. Whitbread remarks, this alone 
makes the chase of such an animal difficult. As in the moufflon, the mutton is excellent. 
There is no difficulty whatever in taming these wild Himalayan sheep; those in the Zoological 
Gardens are practically domesticated. 
DOMESTICATED SHEEP 
Under domestication sheep exhibit a wide variety of coat, shape, and size, very striking 
to the eye, and very important in regard to 
the produce of wool or mutton. The intro- F = 
duction of a particular breed, with long wool 
or short wool as the case may be, has often 
saved or altered for a time the economic 
condition of a colony or province. It was 
the introduction of the sheep which gave 
Australia first rank among the rich colonies 
of the world; and the discovery that the 
Cheviot breed would thrive on the Scotch 
hills made millions of acres remunerative 
which might otherwise have been very un- 
productive. But the only important change 
in the structure of the sheep in domestica- 
tion is the lengthening of the tail. The 
carcase may be fat mutton or thin mutton, 
the wool long or short, fine or coarse; but 
the sheep itself remains true to type, and of 
much the same docile habits, under all the SOUTH DOWN SHEEP 
changes of the breeders. The finest breed of down-sheep 
ie ea 
Photo by F. T. Newman] 
{ Berkhamsted 
