THE BROAD-TAILED SHEEP. 



Generic Characters. 

 Eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, none in the upper. 

 Hornlefs. 



Synonims. 



Ovis Arabica, Caii Opufc. 72. Gefner Quad. Icon. 15. 

 Broad-tailed Sheep, Pennant Hift. Quad. vol. i. p. 41. 

 Ovis laticauda, RaiiSyn. Quad. 74. Linn. Syfl. 97. 

 Le Mouton de Barbarie, de Buffon, xi. 555, tab. xxxiii. 



THE tail of this animal, which conllitutes its greateft peculiarity, is 

 accounted a choice delicacy, and is ufually eaten with the lean of the mutton, 

 its fubftance partaking equally of the nature of fat and marrow. It is faid 

 to be twelve inches broad; of fo great a length as to trail upon the ground; 

 and fo uncommonly heavy as to require the fupport of a fmall carriage, which 

 the fhepherds ufually provide, to keep it from galling. 



This, however, is not the only particular in which the Broad- tailed Sheep 

 excels, as its fleece is equally long, fine, and beautif ul, with the boalted wool 

 of Caramania; and is actually purchafed with avidity by the Cachemirian 

 factors, who fend it to Cachemir, where it is fabricated into fliawls (a) of 

 an exquhite quality and fuperior elegance. 



(a) These articles of luxury were always supposed to have been made with goats' hair, till the public 

 were undeceived by Mr. Bogle's instructive and entertaining account of Thibet, noticed in the Philosophical 

 Transactions. 



