of a small breed, with thin tall legs, and horns like those of a goat, thus
differing somewhat from any kind now known. Almost every country has its
own peculiar breed; and many countries have several breeds differing
greatly from each other. One of the most strongly marked races is an
Eastern one with a long tail, including, according to Pallas, twenty
vertebrae, and so loaded with fat that it is sometimes placed on a truck,
which is dragged about by the living animal. These sheep, though ranked by
Fitzinger as a distinct aboriginal form, bear in their drooping ears the
stamp of long domestication. This is likewise the case with those sheep
which have two great masses of fat on the rump, with the tail in a
rudimentary condition. The Angola variety of the long-tailed race has
curious masses of fat on the back of the head and beneath the jaws. (3/77.
'Youatt on Sheep' page 120.) Mr. Hodgson in an admirable paper (3/78.
'Journal of the Asiatic Soc. of Bengal' volume 16 pages 1007, 1016.) on the
sheep of the Himalaya infers from the distribution of the several races,
"that this caudal augmentation in most of its phases is an instance of
degeneracy in these pre-eminently Alpine animals." The horns present an
endless diversity in character; being not rarely absent, especially in the
female sex, or, on the other hand, amounting to four or even eight in
number. The horns, when numerous, arise from a crest on the frontal bone,
which is elevated in a peculiar manner. It is remarkable that multiplicity
of horns "is generally accompanied by great length and coarseness of the
fleece." (3/79. 'Youatt on Sheep' pages 142-169.) This correlation,
however, is far from being general; for instance, I am informed by Mr. D.
Forbes, that the Spanish sheep in Chile resemble, in fleece and in all
other characters, their parent merino-race, except that instead of a pair
they generally bear four horns. The existence of a pair of mammae is a
generic character in the genus Ovis as well as in several allied forms;
nevertheless, as Mr. Hodgson has remarked, "this character is not
absolutely constant even among the true and proper sheep: for I have more