Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/863

 SHEEP 837 ria ; its flesh is much esteemed, and in Russia the skins are still used as articles of dress ; it is easily domesticated, and is generally believed to be the source of some of the eastern breeds Asiatic Argali (Ovls Ammon). of sheep ; the females have small horns. The African argali or bearded sheep (0. tragela- phus, Cuv.), the aoudad and ammotragus of some authors, is another species intermediate between the sheep and goats, having the inter- digital glands of the former, and the absence of lachrymal sinuses of the latter; it is one fifth larger than the European sheep, with a tail about 7 in. long, ending in a pencil of hairs ; the horns are small in comparison with the size of the body, and rather smooth. The color is uniform reddish yellow, with dorsal stripe and anterior part of limbs brownish; under parts and inside of limbs whitish; the anterior parts. of the neck, body, and legs are furnished with hair 6 to 12 in. long. It in- Kocky Mountain Sheep (Ovis montana). habits the mountains of N. Africa, from Abys- sinia to Barbary, in small flocks; it is fierce, and bravely defends itself. America has also an argali, the Rocky mountain sheep (0. mon- tana, Cuv.), called big-horn from the great size of the horns ; it is found in flocks of 8 to 80, from the upper Missouri and the Yellowstone river to the Rocky mountains and the high grounds on their eastern slope, as far S. as the Rio Grande, E. to the Mauvaises Terres of Ne- braska, and W. to the coast ranges of Wash- ington territory, Oregon, and California; it IB said to range as far N. as lat. 68, but is not found in the hilly regions near Hudson bay. None of the domestic breeds have been traced to this, though it would no doubt cross with them ; the effect of all domestication is to im- prove the fleece, shortening the hair and in- creasing the wool. The musimon of Corsica and the Asiatic argali, though differing some- what in the skeletons from the domesticated races, have generally been considered as their most probable origins. The domestic sheep (ovis aries, Linn.), from whichever of the pre- ceding it be derived, presents a great variety of breeds, only a few of the principal of which can be noticed here ; several of them have received distinct specific names. Among the African sheep is the Fezzan breed, remarkable for the long legs, pendulous ears, arched fore- head, and short, curled, and crispy fleece, like a mane on the neck and whorled on the shoul- ders; the usual colors are black and white. Nearly allied to this is the Persian sheep, with black head and neck, and the rest of the body white ; it is very docile and affectionate. From the last or the Fezzan seem to have sprung the Morocco, Congo, Guinea, and Angola breeds; H. Smith figures a variety called the Zunu or goitred breed, having a high collar of fat be- hind the horns and a goitre-like fatty mass on the larynx. There are several breeds of large- tailed or fat-rumped sheep in S. Africa, extend- ing over that continent and also to Asia ; the Hottentot or broad-tailed breed is below the medium size, with short and soft fleece, and two large masses of fat on each side of the lower part of the tail, which are so esteemed as a deli- cacy that various contrivances are used to pre- vent them from dragging on the ground ; the fat-rumped sheep of Tartary and temperate Asia (0. steatopyga) has a similar growth of fat upon the croup, and long and pendulous ears; the reason of this accumulation of fat, sometimes 70 to 80 Ibs., has not been satisfactorily deter- mined. The most important breed of sheep as regards the texture of the wool is the merino (0. Hispanica), in modern times brought to the greatest perfection in Spain, though its originals probably formed the flocks of the patriarchs thousands of years ago, and have been the stock of all the fine-wooled sheep. Unlike the British breeds, they have wool on the forehead and cheeks ; the horns are very large and heavy, and convoluted laterally ; the wool is fine, long, soft, twisted in silky spiral ringlets, and naturally so oily that the fleece looks dingy and unclean from the dust and dirt adhering to the outside, but perfectly white underneath ; the form is not so sym-