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 mammæ 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
than once met with Cágias (a sub-Himalayan domestic race) possessed of four
teats."[223] This case is the more remarkable as, when any part or organ is
present in reduced number in comparison with the same part in allied
groups, it usually is subject to little variation. The presence of
interdigital pits has likewise been considered as a generic distinction in
sheep; but Isidore Geoffroy[224] has shown that these pits or pouches are
absent in some breeds.
In sheep there is a strong tendency for characters, which have apparently
been acquired under domestication, to become attached either exclusively to
the male sex, or to be more highly developed in this than in the other sex.
Thus in many breeds the horns are deficient in the ewe, though this
likewise occurs occasionally with the female of the wild musmon. In the
rams of the Wallachian breed "the horns spring almost perpendicularly {96}
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."[225] Mr. Hodgson states that the extraordinarily
arched nose or chaffron, which is so highly developed in several foreign
breeds, is characteristic of the ram alone, and apparently is the result of
domestication.[226] I hear from Mr. Blyth that the accumulation of fat in
the fat-tailed sheep of the plains of India is greater in the male than in
the female; and Fitzinger[227] remarks that the mane in the African maned
race is far more developed in the ram than in the ewe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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