apparently exactly similar; but when she gets within five yards of it
she starts to smell all the other lambs within reach,
including the black ones -- though her own may be white.

The fiendish resemblance which one sheep bears to another
is a great advantage to them in their struggles with their owners.
It makes it more difficult to draft them out of a strange flock,
and much harder to tell when any are missing.

Concerning this resemblance between sheep, there is a story told
of a fat old Murrumbidgee squatter who gave a big price for a famous ram
called Sir Oliver. He took a friend out one day to inspect Sir Oliver,
and overhauled that animal with a most impressive air of sheep-wisdom.

"Look here," he said, "at the fineness of the wool. See the serrations
in each thread of it. See the density of it. Look at the way
his legs and belly are clothed -- he's wool all over, that sheep.
Grand animal, grand animal!"

Then they went and had a drink, and the old squatter said, "Now,
I'll show you the difference between a champion ram and a second-rater."
So he caught a ram and pointed out his defects. "See here -- not half
the serrations that other sheep had. No density of fleece to speak of.
Bare-bellied as a pig, compared with Sir Oliver. Not that this isn't
a fair sheep, but he'd be dear at one-tenth Sir Oliver's price.
By the way, Johnson" (to his overseer), "what ram IS this?"

"That, sir," replied the astounded functionary -- "that IS Sir Oliver,
sir!"