CAMEROONS SHEEP.
The large, short-bodied and long-legged sheep found in the interior of western and northern Africa are a complete contrast to the short-legged, long-bodied little Cameroons sheep. There is a very valuable pair of the former in the Berlin Zoological Garden—the Haussa sheep—which are very regularly marked, the front parts of their bodies being red and the hind parts white. They were brought from the neighborhood of Say, on the middle Niger, by the Togo Hinterland expedition. The ram has beautiful horns, and the ewe is distinguished by two strange, tassel-like pendants of skin that hang from her neck. This zoological garden also possesses a fine ram from the interior of Tunis, which is similar in shape to the Haussa ram, but has shorter horns and a heavier mane. Its color is grayish black.
HAUSSA RAM.
HAUSSA EWE.
Dr. Heck considers the long tail of the domestic sheep the chief impediment to the adoption of the theory of its descent from the short-tailed wild sheep. And yet, in sheep, this member is of secondary importance, for it varies greatly in form. The short-tailed heath sheep are just the opposite of the fat-tailed Persian sheep, which are represented in a fabulous account as being obliged to draw their broad tails, that weighed 40 pounds, behind them on wheels. These are the sheep that supply the Astrakan and Persian lamb which is so much worn now. The fur is caused to lie in peculiar waves or tight rings by sewing the newly born lamb in a tightly fitting covering which keeps the fur from being mussed. In the Berlin Zoological Garden there is a very fine four-horned, fat-tailed ram, from the steppes on the lower Volga. From this region come also the large-boned, fat-rumped sheep, which have a large mass of fat on each side of the stunted tail. In the illustration this peculiarity does not show well, on account of the thick winter wool. Their color is red, with dirty white. When Wissman and Bumiller returned from their last expedition, they brought a fine ram of a different breed of fat-rumped sheep, which are raised by the Kirghise, on the Altai Mountains. They are smaller than those from the steppes of the Volga, but have finer wool, and evidently belong to a finer breed. As mutton tallow is very useful, and has been used even from the most ancient times by sheep raisers in the preparation of food, they prize sheep with these masses of fat on the tail and rump, which were purposely developed to the greatest possible degree.
FAT-TAILED SHEEP (FOUR-HORNED RAM).
