(d) Limbs.—Is there any marked difference in the lengths of fore and hind limbs? Notice the hoofs which cover those parts of the feet touching the ground. How many hoofs are there on each foot?
2. The habits of the sheep.—Are sheep solitary or do they live in flocks? What kind of ground do they seem to prefer, flat or hilly? Are sheep on a hillside easily seen from a distance? Why not? Are sheep nimble or clumsy? Can they run very fast? Would a flock of sheep be safer from, say, wolves on a rocky hillside or on an open plain? In a grazing flock of sheep notice whether most of the animals have their heads turned in the same direction. Has the direction any relation to the direction of the wind? Can you explain this?
In a running flock of sheep does any one animal act as leader? Is the leader a ram or a ewe? Is it a lamb or an old animal? Do the rest of the flock imitate the actions of the leader, and, for example, leap over a wall at the same place in single file? Have you ever noticed that if one animal jumps at a certain place, all the following sheep jump at the same place? Have you ever seen sheep fighting? Were the combatants rams or ewes? How did they fight?
What is the voice of a sheep like?
3. Lambs.—(a) Appearance.—At what time of the year are lambs born? Are they helpless or active? Have they long legs? What advantage to the lamb is length of limb?
(b) Play.—Watch lambs playing. Do they show a preference for any eminence, e.g. a rock, in the neighbourhood? What is the meaning of this preference? How do lambs fight? Have you ever seen a ewe stamp with her fore-feet when anyone approached her lamb? At what age is a sheep full grown?
The sheep.—The sheep ([Fig. 173]) differs in several important respects from any of the animals previously mentioned. It is of course a mammal, for it suckles its young, and its body is covered by hair; but the hair is of that warm fleecy kind which is called wool. The fibres of wool are seen under the microscope to be rough and scaly. For this reason they can be spun into loosely-textured threads which entangle a great deal of air; woollen garments are thus very bad conductors of heat. The wool upon the sheep’s body is slightly greasy, from a substance which is given off by the skin and protects the animal from rain. The toes of the sheep are not armed with ordinary nails or claws, but claws are represented by horny masses called hoofs, which encase the ends of the toes, and upon which the whole weight of the body is thrown. The sheep, especially the male (ram), is often provided with weapons in the form of hollow horns, which grow upon its forehead.
Fig. 173.—Sheep.