THE BARBARY BROAD-TAILED SHEEP. 169 
middle Asia have the ears pointing forwards, the pro- 
file much arched, and the horns from three to six in 
number. 
The O. steatojiyga or Fat-ruraped Sheep of Pallas, 
the same we have just alluded to, is reared through- 
out all the temperate regions of Asia, from the fron- 
tiers of Europe to those of China in the vast plains 
of Tartary, where the hordes of Kirguize Tartars 
lead a wandering life, seeking fresh and fitting pas- 
ture. The body of the animal towards the posteriors 
swells gradually with fat ; but the characteristic mark 
is the deposition of a solid mass of fat on the rump, 
which falls over in the place of a tail, divided into 
two hemispheres, which take the form of hips, with a 
little button of a tail in the middle, to be felt with the 
finger. It sometimes becomes so loose as to incom- 
mode the sheep, and weighs thirty-eight pounds.* 
The subject of our plate is from the figure of Fre- 
deric Cuvier, and is the Barbary breed, with the 
profile arched, the ears of middling size and pendant ; 
the fleece of a thick but coarse wool, the horns have 
the direction of those of the Moufflon, and the tail, 
nn each side, is loaded with an accumulation of 
fat. 
All observers have attributed this accumulation of 
fat to the peculiarity of feeding, but there seems no 
reason or detail of experiments which can prove any 
>;lfing satisfactorily; Fred. Cuvier remarks, that the 
• Pallas’s History of Kussian Sheep. 
Q 
VOL. IV. 
