THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SHEEP.
SKELETON OF THE SHEEP AS COVERED BY THE MUSCLES.
1. The intermaxillary bone. 2. The nasal bones. 3. The upper jaw. 4. The union of the nasal and upper jaw-bones. 5. The union of the molar and lachrymal bones. 6. The orbits of the eye. 7. The frontal bone. 8. The lower jaw. 9. The incisor teeth, or nippers. 10. The molars or grinders. 11. The ligament of the neck supporting the head. 12. The seven vertebræ, or the bones of the neck. 13. The thirteen vertebræ, or bones of the back. 14. The six vertebræ of the loins. 15. The sacral bone.[58] 16. The bones of the tail, varying in different breeds from twelve to twenty-one. 17. The haunch and pelvis. 18. The eight true ribs, with their cartilages. 19. The five false ribs, or those that are not attached to the breast-bone. 20. The breast-bone. 21. The scapula, or shoulder-blade. 22. The humerus, bone of the arm, or lower part of the shoulder. 23. The radius, or bone of the fore-arm. 24. The ulna or elbow. 25. The knee with its different bones. 26. The metacarpal or shank-bones—the larger bones of the leg. 27. A rudiment of the smaller metacarpal. 28. One of the sessamoid bones. 29. The first two bones of the foot—the pasterns. 30. The proper bones of the foot. 31. The thigh-bone. 32. The stifle-joint and its bone—the patella. 33. The tibia, or bone of the upper part of the leg. 34. The point of the hock. 35. The other bones of the hock. 36. The metatarsal bones, or bone of the hind-leg. 37. Rudiment of the small metatarsal. 38. A sessamoid bone. 39. The first two bones of the foot—the pasterns. 40. The proper bones of the foot.
Division. Vertebrata—possessing a back-bone.
Class. Mammalia—such as give suck.
Order. Ruminantia—chewing the cud.
Family. Capridæ—the goat kind.
Genus. Oris—the sheep family.
Of this Genus there are three varieties:
Oris, Ammon, or Argali.
Oris Musmon.
Oris Aries, or Domestic Sheep.
Of the latter—with which alone this treatise is concerned—there are about forty well known varieties. Between the oris, or sheep, and the capra, or goat, another genus of the same family, the distinctions are well marked, although considerable resemblance exists between them. The horns of the sheep have a spiral direction, while those of the goat have a direction upward and backward; the sheep, except in a single wild variety, has no beard, while the goat is bearded; the goat, in his highest state of improvement, 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, while the hair on the sheep may, by domestication, be reduced to a few coarse hairs, or got rid of altogether; and, finally, the pelt or skin of the goat has thickness very far exceeding that of the sheep.
The age of sheep is usually reckoned, not from the time that they are dropped, but from the first shearing; although the first year may thus include fifteen or sixteen months, and sometimes more. When doubt exists relative to the age, recourse is had to the teeth, since there is more uncertainty about the horn in this animal than in cattle; ewes that have been early bred, appearing always, according to the rings on the horn, a year older than others that have been longer kept from the ram.