SHEEP.
Chapter I.
The Zoological Character of the Sheep—The different Names applied to it according to its Age—The Marks by which its Age may be ascertained, and the natural Duration of its Life—Description of the Teeth.
The Sheep, according to Cuvier[1], belongs to the Order Ruminantia; having teeth in the lower jaw only, opposed to a callous substance in the upper jaw; six molar teeth on either side, and the joint of the lower jaw adapted for a grinding motion; four stomachs, and these, with the oesophagus, so constructed that the food is returned for the purpose of rumination; long intestines not cellated:
—the Tribe Capridæ; the horns, where they are found, being permanent; placed on a vascular bony basis or process; the horny sheath receiving its increase by annual ringlets at the base, forming deep sulci around the horn, with others as deep running longitudinally, and dividing the surface of the horn into a succession of irregularities or knots. The general structure light, and adapted for springing or swiftness; the ears usually erect and funnel-shaped; the pupils of the eye oblong, and there not being any canine teeth in the mouth:
—the Genus Ovis; with or without horns, and these, where present, taking more or less a spiral direction; the forehead or outline of the face convex; no lacrymal or respiratory opening under the eye; the nostrils lengthened and terminating without a muzzle; no beard; the body covered with short close hair with a downy wool beneath, and, in a domestic state, the wool prevailing over the hair, or quite superseding it; the legs slender, yet firm, and without brushes or callosities.
Of these there are three varieties: the Ovis Ammon, or Argali; the Ovis Musmon, or Musmon; and the Ovis Aries, or Domestic Sheep. The two first will be described in a future chapter, the last will form the principal subject of this work.
There is considerable resemblance between the ovis or sheep, and the capra or goat, another genus of the tribe Capridæ, the history and uses of which will be described in the after part of this volume. The distinctions between them are chiefly these: many sheep are without horns; the horns of sheep have a spiral direction, while those of the goat have a direction upwards and backwards; the forehead of sheep is convex, and that of the goat concave; the sheep has, except in one wild variety, nothing resembling a beard, but the goat is bearded; while the goat, in his highest state of improvement, and when he is made to produce wool of a fineness unequalled by the sheep, as in the Cashmere breed, is mainly, and always externally, covered with hair, the hair on the sheep may, by domestication,
- ↑ Animal Kingdom, Synopsis
