AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
213 
1871.] 
Fat-tailed and Fat-rumped Sheep. 
Sheep are so readily modified by breeding, 
as well as by the peculiarities of climate or the 
nature of their food, that naturalists arc much 
puzzled as to the 
number of natural 
species. Sheep re¬ 
moved from a cool 
climate to a hot one 
lose their wool, and 
becoming covered 
with coarse hair, 
appear more like 
goats than like 
sheep. Some varie¬ 
ties with remark¬ 
able local deposits 
of fat are found in 
different countries. 
An Angola variety 
has curious masses 
of fat on the back 
of the head and 
beneath the jaws, 
which give the ani¬ 
mal the appearance 
of wearing a large 
collar or ruff. Sev¬ 
eral countries pos¬ 
sess breeds of sheep 
which have the tail 
enormously enlarged by a deposit of fat. One of 
these, an Asiatic one, has a tail containing twenty 
vertebrae, and so loaded with fat, that in order to 
preserve it from injury, it being considered a 
great delicacy, it is sometimes supported by a 
truck, which is dragged about by the animal. 
The broad-tailed sheep 
of different and widely 
separated countries have 
generally pendulous ears, 
which are considered by 
Darwin to be a mark of 
long domestication. Some 
of them have four and 
even six horns, while 
others are hornless. The 
wool on these sheep is gen¬ 
erally coarse and long, 
and hanging in thick 
patches. The Astrachan 
sheep belongs to this 
broad-tailed group. The 
coat of the young animal, 
killed before birth, is fine 
and frizzled, and is used 
as an ornamental fur. 
In some countries there 
are breeds in which there 
is a great deposit of fat 
upon the hind-quarters 
near the tail, but the tail 
is most usually undevel¬ 
oped, and in some of the 
fat-rumped varieties is en¬ 
tirely wanting. There are 
some breeds of this kind 
in Africa, where they are 
valued not only as furnish¬ 
ing a much-prized article 
of food, but for supplying 
tallow for domestic pur¬ 
poses. One of these Afri¬ 
can fat-rumped sheep is in the collection at Cen¬ 
tral Park,and we give an engraving of it from life. 
The fab-tailed sheep of Tartary and the Crimea, 
when taken to Russia, are said to lose their 
peculiar fatty development in a few generations. 
Were there a number of these fat-rumped 
sheep at the Park, it would be interesting to 
see if they retained their distinctive character 
in a climate, and with food so different from 
that to which the breed has been accustomed. 
FAT-RUMPED SHEEP. 
Meat-flies and Fly-blows. 
A number of flies belonging to different 
genera pass their larva state as maggots in 
meat. Many times their presence is annoying 
and a cause of loss; but the damage they do us 
is probably offset by their rapid and bene¬ 
ficial work as scavengers, as they hasten the 
removal of animal matters, which might in 
their slow decay prove noxious. Some of these 
flesh-flies produce their young alive—an un¬ 
usual thing with insects—and the maggots are 
ready to go to work at once without waiting 
the few hours required for the hatching of the 
eggs of some other species. Our viviparous 
flesh-flies belong to the genus Sarcophaga — 
flesh-eaters. It is 
stated upon the 
authority of Reau¬ 
mur that a single 
female of the Euro¬ 
pean Flesh-fly will 
produce as many 
as twenty thou¬ 
sand maggots. Our 
largest Flesh-fly is 
the Sarcophaga Ge¬ 
orgina , it being 
about half an jnch 
long. It is distin¬ 
guished by its sil¬ 
very white face 
and copper-colored 
eyes,between which 
there is an oblong 
square black spot. 
Its thorax or chest 
is gray, with seven 
black stripes. The 
Blue-bottle fly ,Mus- 
ca Ccesar, and the 
Meat-fly, Musca vo- 
mitoria, are better 
known; the one being of a blue-black, and the 
other of a brilliant blue-green color. These do 
not produce their young alive, but lay eggs, 
which are deposited upon meat and decaying 
animal substances, and are well-known as fly¬ 
blows. The eggs hatch in three or four hours, 
and the resulting maggots 
feed most ravenously, and 
grow with great rapidity. 
They attain their growth 
in three or four days, when 
they hide themselves in 
some crevice, or burrow in 
the earth and pass into the 
pupa state, from which 
they come out in a few 
days as perfect flies, and 
go on with the work of 
reproduction. The en¬ 
graving illustrates the me¬ 
tamorphoses of flies of this 
kind, giving the maggot, 
the pupa, and the perfect 
insect. The meat-flies de¬ 
posit their eggs not only 
in dead animal substances, 
but in the wounds of the 
living ones. During the 
late war the soldiers were 
subject to great suffering 
on this account, as it was 
frequently the case, that 
those who were left for 
some time before they 
could receive surgical at¬ 
tention, were found with 
their wounds filled with 
the devouring larvae of the 
Meat-fly. Under the name 
of “gentles,” the maggots 
of meat-flies are used as 
bait by fishermen, and the 
breeders of trout find them a most valuable 
food for the young fry. The maggots are ob¬ 
tained from the bone-boilers in large quantities; 
and we know of one fish-breeder who orders 
several barrels at a time for the purpose of 
