SHEEP. 
227 
devices is to seek for spots on the lee-side of a ridge where the currents of air meet. 
Here, in otherwise favourable positions, they are quite unapproachable.” Occa¬ 
sionally wild mouflon will desert their own kin to live among tame sheep; while 
sometimes also a motherless domestic lamb has been known to seek companionship 
among a flock of mouflon. Evidently, therefore, the wild sheep are very closely 
related to our domesticated breeds. 
Domestic Sheep (Oris aries). 
Although from the similarity in the form and structure of their horns there 
can be no doubt that the domestic races of sheep are more nearly allied to the 
mouflon, Armenian wild sheep, and urial, than to those mentioned hereafter, yet 
we are at present quite in the dark as to their origin; and it is an open question 
whether we ought to regard the various domesticated breeds as derived from a 
single, or from several, original wild stocks. The most important features by which 
most domestic races of sheep differ from their wild cousins are the length of the 
tail, and the substitution of a coat of wool for one of hair. No wild sheep except 
the under-mentioned Barbary sheep, which has horns of a totally different type, is 
furnished with a long tail; but it has been suggested that the long tails of the 
domestic breeds are due to a kind of degeneracy, although, it must be confessed 
that this does not much advance matters. Unfortunately, geology does not help 
us much in this investigation; although it is ascertained that the inhabitants of 
the ancient Swiss lake-villages were possessed of a breed of sheep characterised by 
their small size, long thin legs, and goat-like horns. 
Domestic sheep vary greatly in the character of their horns. Thus while in 
the Dorset breed these appendages are present in both sexes, and of nearly equal 
size in each, in some forms only the males are provided with horns, while in other 
breeds, like the Southdown, they are absent in both sexes. On the other hand, 
there is a tendency among some breeds to produce additional pairs of horns, so 
that we may have four-horned, and even eight-horned, sheep. When there is more 
than one pair of horns, they arise from a peculiar elevated crest on the frontal 
bones. In the Wallachian breed the horns of the rams, as Mr. Youatt remarks, 
spring almost perpendicularly from the frontal bone, and then take a beautiful 
spiral form; in the ewes they protrude nearly at right angles from the head, and 
then become twisted in a singular manner. 
One of the most remarkable types of domestic sheep is character- 
Flat-tailed. Sheep.. . " 1 1 
ised by the tail being flattened, and either of great length or 
abnormally shortened. It has been considered that these sheep indicated a distinct 
aboriginal form, but against this view may be quoted Mr. Darwin’s observation 
that their drooping ears are indicative of long domestication. On the other hand, 
the nature of the pelage in the Eastern and Ethiopian varieties of these breeds, is 
suggestive of a more intimate relationship with a wild ancestral stock. 
In Asia Minor, Syria, and parts of Arabia, the flat-tailed sheep have their 
tails of enormous size, sometimes reaching a weight of from 40 to 50 lbs. So 
long, indeed, is the tail, that it actually trails upon the ground, and is frequently 
supported by little sledges in order to prevent it from incommoding its owner. 
