c m 
Prof. Blumenbach on the Wild Sheep . 
as any thing else thaii imaginary ; but the structure of the or- 
gan is so elegant, and its form so regular, that it cannot pos- 
sibly be considered as fortuitous, or what is commonly called 
a lusus natures. I leave to others, who may have an oppor- 
tunity, to inquire whether any variety be observable in its con- 
formation and size, as connected with a difference of age or 
sex *. 
5. domestic Sheep again become Wild. 
As some kinds of domestic animals, hogs, for example, cats, 
rabbits, &c., are evidently referable to their original stocks, 
so, on the other hand, there are many others which seem so 
much altered from their original state, that they are now no- 
where to be seen in nature, that is, in a wild state, nor can we 
pronounce with certainty what was their native country. Thus, 
it is impossible to say with precision, what was the original coun- 
try of the horse or dog, provided care be taken not to confound 
the offspring of tame individuals, which have got loose and re- 
tired to uncultivated places, with truly wild animals, which have 
been so all along from their origin. For, to mention an ex- 
ample, whole herds of wild horses are now found in the woods 
of Paraguay, although, as is well known, no animals of the 
species existed in the New World, before the first arrival of the 
Spaniards there. In the same way, the classic Oviedo, one of 
the first writers on the New World, mentions that other species 
of domestic animals, dogs, cats, oxen and hogs, which had been 
brought to America by those Europeans who first took posses- 
sion of it, had afterwards become wild by chance, and had pro- 
pagated -f\ 
In the same manner, numerous cases have been observed in 
Europe, of dogs, cats, goats, oxen and horses. Only of the 
sheep no example had hitherto occurred to me J, until, perusing 
• We have observed a similar prickle at the extremity of the tail of the leopard. 
—Ed. 
•f On the subject of European dogs run wild in America, consult our noble 
friend Alex, de Humboldt, Ansichten der Natur. Part i. p. 87. 
$ For what Olendorf says of sheep, which have become wild in the lofty moun- 
tains of the West India island Santa Cruz, does not appear to rest upon a very firm 
foundation. — See his Gcrchiche der Mission der Evangclischen Bruder , &c. vol. i. 
p. 84. 
