1887] `  Hornless Ruminants. 743 
dishorned (as is now such a common practice in the Western 
States of America, among cattle) their goats and sheep of certain 
kinds. This would indicate that they were acquainted with the 
useful properties of hornless races of these Ruminants, which we, 
indeed, know to be the fact with the latter. 
Sheep—Generally considered sheep are described as having 
“horns common to both sexes, sometimes wanting in the females.” 
The domestic breeds are, however, mostly polled. 
Aristotle (4, xxvii.) states that in Libya the horned rams are 
born at once with horns, and not the males only, as Homer says, 
but all the rest also. In part of Scythia, near the Pontus, the 
contrary is the case, for they are born without horns. 
Jardine figures a peculiar breed of Persian sheep. It is polled, 
with black head, ears, and neck, the rest of the body white: has 
pendulous ears and arched profile, stands somewhat high, and 
has short, crisp wool, It seems to resemble the breed of African 
and Ethiopian sheep. It also appears to spread itself into many 
varieties—the Morocco breed, the Congo breed (covered with 
very loose wool instead of hair, with two wattles beneath the. 
throat), the Guinea breed, and the Angora races (which have 
finer wool), : 
He also mentions the hornless Mysore as the most beautiful 
Indian breed. In Russian Tartary are polled, lop-eared, Roman- 
nosed sheep, . : 
Prof. Youatt says (“ Sheep”),— 
“The primitive breed was certainly horned? and those horns 
Were of considerable size. . . . The polled sheep were probably 
Of tha ccasionally dropped with the rudiments of horns; some 
© north and south of Asia, prevailing more than any other in 
* Page 363 he says “ probably” instead of “ ce tainly.” 
