Panics in Sheep. 
131 
of Oxfordshire, extending into adjoining parts of the counties of 
Warwick, Gloucester, and Berks. Individual farmers on finding 
the next morning that their sheep (almost all sheep in this part of 
the country are folded or “penned” on turnips on the arable land 
at that time of year) had broken out during the night, and observ- 
ing that the condition of the pens and hurdles, as well as of the 
sheep themselves in some cases, pointed to the fact of the sheep 
having been severely frightened, naturally concluded that they had 
been worried by a dog ; some, finding that the sheep exhibited no 
marks of being worried, concluded that they had only been frightened, 
perhaps by a dog, perhaps by a fox ; others applied to the police. 
The result of any inquiries made by the police, or privately, or by men- 
tioning the fact among neighbours, however, was to elicit the fact 
that the panic had extended over a very large tract of country, and 
that unless it was allowed that all the dogs and foxes in the district 
had with concerted action simultaneously arisen and attacked 
hundreds of flocks on the same night, this attempt to account for 
the panic would have to be abandoned. The panic was then 
attributed by all flock-owners (save one, who seemed very loth to 
exonerate some sparrow-catching boys !) to some atmospheric or 
meteoric cause, or to an earthquake. 
As the subject of the susceptibility of various birds and animals, 
not excepting the human species, to atmospheric changes, and especi- 
ally to changes in the weather, had then recently been occupying my 
attention, I felt some interest in investigating the facts of the panic, 
and in ascertaining the cause, if possible. With this end in view I 
wrote a letter to one of our county newspapers, asking for information 
as to the extent of country over which the panic extended. The chief 
result of this letter was that I received one from Lord Moreton, in 
which he did me the honour to ask me to contribute a paper upon 
the subject of the sheep panic to this J ournal. I had great pleasure 
in undertaking to prepare a note on the occurrence, but I ought to 
add here that the greater part of the information at my disposal was 
collected and forwarded to me by Lord Moreton, who has all along 
taken the greatest interest in the inquiry. 
The general effects of the panic, and the results and consequences 
of it, were, roughly speaking, the same in all cases, though in some 
flocks the fright seems to have been greater and more lasting than 
in others. Shepherds on going to the sheep on the morning of the 
5th found the hurdles knocked down or broken, troughs and racks 
overturned, and the sheep “ out ” and at varying distances from the 
folds. To give a few examples : Mr. Willocks, agent to Lord Dillon, 
at Ditchley, writes of Ditchley Model Farm : — 
My shepherd found the ewes had broken out of their pens, in several 
places all round, and eight huidles were broken in two, and several stakes 
were broken over level with the ground. The ewes were found in the 
morning about 300 yards from their pen. They had travelled direct north, 
and were lying down at the side of the carriage-drive. 
K 2 
And of a farm at Taston Mr. Willocks writes : — 
