As a rule, domestic animals are accorded very little space in
zoological gardens, but, although it is doubtless the first duty of
these popular institutions to show visitors animals which live in a
wild state in foreign lands, it is well, where there is sufficient
space and adequate means, to extend the limits of the collection so as
to include natives of our own woods and fields, thus enabling people
of a great city who are unfamiliar with nature to form an idea of the
changes wrought in animal life by the influence of man, for domestic
animals are a great aid in the study of natural history. The
accompanying engravings are reproductions of instantaneous photographs
of occupants of the new sheep and goat house--mostly foreign breeds;
but there are a few that belong to that South European-Asiatic group
which are looked upon as the progenitors of the domestic sheep: the
mouflon, of Sardinia and Corsica (Ovis Musimon L.), which has a coat
of brownish red, flecked with darker color; and the slender,
long-legged, reddish-gray sheep of Belochistan (Ovis Blanfordi Hume).
The first glance at these creatures convinces one that they are wild,
not domestic sheep, an impression which is caused chiefly by the
monotonous coloring and the dry, short coat, which bears no
resemblance to the thick fleece of the tame sheep, although the eye is
soon attracted by other differences, such as the shape of the tail,
which is short and thick, and of the horns, which extend over the back
and then turn inward, so that when the old ram is kept in captivity,
it is necessary to cut off the points of the horns to prevent their
boring into the flesh of its neck. Horns of this shape form a strong
contrast to those with snail-like windings and points standing away
from the body. When looking at one of these sheep from the front, it
will be noticed that the left horn turns to the right and the right
horn to the left.