1876.] 357 [Bond. 



the Domestication of Animals and Plants, speaking of sheep, says : — 

 "In some few instances new breeds have suddenly originated; thus 

 in 1791 a ram-lamb was born in Massachusetts having crooked legs 

 and a long back like a turnspit dog. From this one lamb the Otter 

 or Ancon breed was raised; as these sheep could not leap over the 

 fences it was thought that they would be valuable, but they have 

 been supplanted by Merinos and thus exterminated." 



Huxley, in his lectures on the Origin of Species, also speaks of 

 this race, and expressed a regret that no skeleton had been pre- 

 served. Mr. Bond had the good fortune, through the kindness of 

 Mr. R. G. Hazard, of Rhode Island, to find a small flock of eight 

 still living there, and obtained two, one, at the request of Prof. H. P. 

 Bowditch, for the Society. This deformed race has, therefore, been 

 perpetuated through many generations during eighty-five years. 



Darwin also remarks, continued Mr. Bond: — " A more interesting 

 case has been recorded in the report of the Juries of the Great Ex- 

 position (1857), namely, the introduction of a Merino ram-lamb on 

 the Mauchamp farm in 1828, which was remarkable for its long, 

 smooth, straight and silky wool. By the year 1833 Mr. Graux had 

 raised rams enough to serve his whole flock; and after a few more 

 years he was able to sell stock of his new breed. So peculiar and 

 valuable is the wool that it sells at twenty-five per cent, above the 

 best Merino wool; even the fleeces of half-bred animals are valuable, 

 and are known in France as the Mauchamp Merino." 



This ram was born with hair, and when it dropped its first hair 

 the fine, straight, silky wool appeared. Mr. Bond having heard of 

 other lambs being born in pure Merino flocks with hair, long since 

 believed that some common cause must be found, and that the Mau- 

 champ was not, like the Otter, a freak of nature, but more likely a 

 reversion which might help to discover the origin of the Merino 

 race, a point which has never been settled. A short time ago a spec- 

 imen of wool, which the speaker showed, was sent to him from New 

 York to ascertain what it was. It was much longer, but in other 

 respects like the wool of the Mecca sheep. Mr. Bond concluded 

 it was what should be found on that race raised under circumstances 

 favorable to the full development of its covering. 



Dr. L. Fitzinger, in an interesting paper on the Domestic sheep, 

 published in the Sitzungsberichte of the Imperial Academy of Vi- 

 enna, for 1859-60, says of the Stump-tailed sheep: "It is about the 

 size of the smaller races of Merino sheep, and reminds one in its 



