THE OXFORD DOWN 



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a dark brown face and legs, is wooled over the forehead, and is 

 a typical mutton sheep. However, under average conditions the 

 Oxford Down is lighter brown than the Shropshire, is not so 

 heavily wooled over the head, though with longer, looser forelock, 

 has a larger frame and more scale, with a longer, more open 

 fleece. In early days the Oxford face was speckled or mottled 

 brown and white or gray, and the fleece was rather long and open, 

 quite suggestive of the long-wool type, as might he expected, con- 

 sidering the Cotswold blood used. The modern Oxford, however, 

 has been bred to be 

 uniformly brown in 

 face, though the Amer- 

 ican standard calls for 

 an even dark gray or 

 brown face with or 

 without a gray spot on 

 the lower part of the 

 nose, and the fleece 

 has been bred shorter 

 and more compact. 

 The head of the Ox- 

 ford is rarely wooled 

 much below the fore- 

 head, and the dark gray 

 or brown ears tend to 

 be somewhat long and 



thin and free of wool. As a rule Oxfords show the distinctive 

 mutton form, with a strong breadth of back and excellent leg 

 of mutton. The skin of the Oxford Down, like the Shropshire, 

 is frequently bluish tinted, lacking the pink, bright cherry color 

 most admired. The twentieth-century Oxford Down is a sheep 

 of much merit, but lacks the refinement of Southdown or Shrop- 

 shire, as expressed in the grosser size and quality of bone 

 and fleece. An interesting comparison of the Oxford and Shrop- 

 shire by John Wrightson^ of England, who was a keen ob- 

 server of sheep and lived close to their native home, is well 

 worth quoting here : 



1 Sheep : Breeds and Management, p. 70. London, 1895. 

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Fig. 263. A reserve Oxford Down stud ram in the 



flock of the late John Bryan, South Leigh, England. 



From photograph by the author 



