Richard Lydekker, William Fream and Robert Wallace

“ The Herdwick is the hardiest of all the breeds thriving upon the poor mountain land in Cumberland and Westmorland. The rams sometimes have small, curved, wide horns like those of the Cheviot ram. The colour of the fleece is white, with a few darkish spots here and there; the faces and legs are dark in the lambs, gradually becoming white or light grey in a few years. The wool is strong and coarse, standing up round the shoulders and down the breast like a mane. The forehead has a topknot, and the tail is well covered.
The Limestone is a breed of which little is heard. ”

“ In the males the horns are generally angulated, and marked by line transverse wrinkles; their colour being greenish or brownish. They are directed outwards, and curve in an open spiral, with the tips directed outwards. Although there may be a fringe of hair on the throat, the males have no beard on the chin; and they also lack the strong odour characteristic of goats. Usually the tail is short; and in all the wild species the coat takes the form of hair, and not wool. Like goats, sheep have narrow upper molar teeth, very different from those of the oxen, and narrow hairy muzzles. ”

“ The crumen or suborbital face-gland, which is so largely developed and probably performs the same office in some antelopes and deer, is present, although in a comparatively rudimentary form, in most species, but is absent in others. Wild sheep attain their maximum development, both in respect of number and size, in Central Asia. They associate either in large flocks, or in family-parties; the old males generally keeping apart from the rest. Although essentially mountain animals, sheep generally frequent open, undulating districts, rather than the precipitous heights to which goats are partial. ”

“ The rams come in from the hills on the 1st of January and are sent to winter on turnips. Weak ewes, not safe to survive the hardships of spring, are brought in to better pasture during February and March. Ewe hogs wintered on grass in the low country from the 1st of November are brought home in April, and about the middle of April on the average mountain ewes begin to lamb. One lamb at weaning time for every ewe is rather over the normal amount of produce. Cheviot and cross-bred lambs are marked, and the males are castrated, towards the end of May. ”

“ The breed is distinguished by having the smoothest and blackest face and legs of all the Down breeds and no wool on the head. Although it handles hard on the back when fat, no breed except the old Horned Norfolk equals it in producing a saddle cut of mutton with such an abundance of lean red meat in proportion to fat. It carried off the highest honours in the dressed carcass competition at Chicago in 1903, and the championship in the “block test” at Smithfield Club Show was won for the five years 1902–1906 by Suffolks or Suffolk cross lambs from big-framed Cheviot ewes. ”

“ They are hardy, white-faced sheep, with a close-coated longwool fleece. They were gradually, like the Cotswolds, improved from the original type of slow-maturity sheep by selection in preference to the use of rams of the Improved Leicester breed. With the exception of the Lincoln, no breed has received greater distinction in New Zealand, where it is in high repute for its hardiness and general usefulness. When difficulties relating to the quantity and quality of food arise the Romney is a better sheep to meet them than the Lincolns or other longwools. ”

“ It is remarkable for the great size of the horns of the old rams and the wide open sweep of their curve, so that the points stand boldly out on each side, far away from the animal's head, instead of curling round nearly in the same plane, as in most of the allied species. ”

“ They are longwool sheep, derived from the old Teeswater breed by crossing with Leicester rams. They have a tuft of wool on the forehead. The skin of the body is sometimes blue, whilst the wool has a bright lustre, is curled in small distinct pirls, and is of uniform staple. The rams are in much favour in Scotland and the N. of England for crossing with ewes of the various black-faced horned mountain breeds to produce mutton of superior quality and to use the cross-ewes to breed to a pure longwool or sometimes a Down ram. ”

“ Fat-rumped sheep, Ovis steatopyga, are common to Africa and Asia, and are piebald with rudimentary horns, and a short hairy coat, being bred entirely for their milk and flesh. In fat-tailed sheep, on the other hand, which have much the same distribution, the coat is woolly and generally piebald. ”

“ Between the two middle toes, in most species, is lodged a deep glandular bag having the form of a retort with a small external orifice, which secretes an unctuous and odorous substance. This, tainting the herbage or stones over which the animal walks, affords the means by which, through the powerfully developed sense of smell, the neighbourhood of other individuals of the species is recognized. ”

“ To increase the number of doubles, ewes are sometimes put on good fresh grass, rape or mustard a week before the tups go out—a ram to sixty ewes is a usual proportion, though with care a stud ram can be got to settle twice the number. With good management twenty ewes of any of the lowland breeds should produce and rear thirty lambs, and the proportion can be increased by breeding from ewes with a prolific tendency. ”

“ Its most notable success in recent years is on the Scottish and English borders, where, at the annual ram sales at Kelso, a greater number of rams is auctioned of this than of any other breed, to cross with flocks of Leicester-Cheviot ewes especially, but also with Border Leicesters and three-parts-bred ewes. It is supplanting the Border Leicester as a sire of mutton sheep; for, although its progeny is slower in reaching maturity, tegs can be fed to greater weights in spring—65 to 68 ℔ per carcass—without becoming too fat to be classed as finest quality. ”

“ The special characteristic of the breed is that the ewes take the ram at an unusually early period of the year, and cast ewes are in demand for breeding house lamb for Christmas. Two crops of lambs in a year are sometimes obtained from the ewes, although it does not pay to keep such rapid breeding up regularly. ”

“ In past times it did for the improvement of the shortwool breeds of sheep very much the same kind of work that the Leicester performed in the case of the longwool breeds. A pure-bred Southdown sheep has a small head, with a light brown or brownish grey (often mouse-coloured) face, fine bone, and a symmetrical, well-fleshed body. The legs are short and neat, the animal being of small size compared with the other Down sheep. The fleece is of fine, close, short wool, and the mutton is excellent. ”

“ The Welsh Mountain is a small, active, soft-woolled, white-faced breed of hardy character. The legs are often yellowish, and this colour may extend to the face. The mutton is of excellent quality. The ewes, although difficult to confine by ordinary fences, are in high favour in lowland districts for breeding fattening lambs to Down and other early maturity rams. ”

“ The colour of face and legs is well-defined black and white, the black predominating. The spiral horns are low at the crown, with a clear space between the roots, and sweep in a wide curve, sloping slightly backwards, and clear of the cheek. The fashionable fleece is down to the ground, hairy and strong, and of uniform quality throughout. ”