FAT-TAILED SHEEP.
The fat tail of this sheep was considered by Charles Darwin as due to degeneration.
The Barbary Sheep, Aoudad, or Arui.
This is a large wild sheep of the North African highlands. The old rams have a very fine appearance, with a long flowing beard or mane, and large horns. These wild sheep, though somewhat goat-like in appearance, are typical of their race in general habits. They live in the Atlas Range, and in the splendid heights of the Aures Mountains, which lie at the back of Algeria and fringe the great Sahara Desert. In the isolated and burning rocks which jut up in the desert itself into single mountains they are also found, living on ground which seems absolutely destitute of water, grass, or vegetation. They live singly or in small families; but the rams keep mainly alone. Sometimes they lie in shallow caves during the heat of the day. These caves smell like a sheep-fold. More generally the sheep repose on some shelf of rock, where they exactly match the colour of the stone, and are invisible. The ground is among the most difficult in which any hunting is attempted, except perhaps in chamois-stalking; but the pursuit seems to fascinate sportsmen. Mr. A. E. Pease recently gave some charming descriptions of the silence, the rugged rocks, and the astonishing views over the great orange Sahara Desert seen from the tops of these haunts of the Barbary sheep—mountains on the summits of which his Arab guides would prostrate themselves in evening prayer as the sun sank over the desert, and then, rising, once more resume the chase. The young lambs of the Barbary sheep are charming little creatures, more like reddish kids. They can follow the mother over the steepest ground at a great pace. When caught, as they sometimes are by the Arabs, they soon become tame. The tail is longer than in other wild sheep, and in the males a large mane covers the chest.
Photo by W. P. Dando] [Regent's Park.
FOUR-HORNED SHEEP.
There are several breeds of these sheep, some from China, some from Iceland, and others from South Africa.
The Burhal, or Blue Sheep.
This species possibly indicates the transition-point from the sheep to the goats. It was pointed out by Mr. Brian Hodgson that it had certain features more like the goats than the sheep, and later other writers laid stress on structural differences of the same kind, both in skull and horns. It has not the disagreeable odour of the goats; but the black markings which separate the white of the belly from the brown of the flanks, and run down the front of the legs, are like those seen on some goats. The horns rise in a curve outwards and downwards. The largest are only some 30 inches long.