Chevet

“ The horny covering of the sheep’s foot extends up, gradually thinning out, some way between the toes and divisions of the hoof, and above these horny walls the cleft is lined with skin. When the points of the toes are spread apart, this skin is shown in front, covered with short, soft hair. The back part of the toes, or the heels, can be separated only to a little distance, and the skin in the cleft above them is naked. In a healthy foot, the skin throughout the whole cleft is as firm, dry, and uneroded as on any other part of the animal. ”

“ You will say that these animals have hoofs divided in the centre, while the hoof of a horse is not divided at all. The pig, which does not ruminate, has a hoof centrally divided, like that of a sheep; and the hare, which chews the cud, has several separate toes, and belongs to the rodents. Amid all this diversity there is this constant characteristic, that the cud-chewers of the ungulates have the toes of each foot collected under what is called a cloven hoof, as if a solid hoof had been cleft into two. ”

“ Our most experienced breeders prefer an animal with a long cylindrical body, small bones, well-developed muscles, a wide chest—which denotes strength of constitution, a broad straight back, short head and fine snout, brilliant eyes, a short thick neck, broad well-developed shoulders, a loose mellow skin, fine bright long hair, and few bristles, and small legs and hoofs. ”

“ Arrangements of its hair so audacious as these need explana­tion, and it is found in the mode of life of the cow. So large a part of its daily life is spent in the business of grazing with her muzzle close to the ground, during which the neck of the animal is constantly stretched downwards from the back at the level of the shoulders, that the skin, which is very loose in this and most other portions of its body, is dragged upon to allow of the extreme flexion of its neck. ”

“ Their metallic cheep, cheep, warns you to keep away from the little blue-white eggs, hidden away securely in the bushes; and the nervous tail twitchings and jerkings are pathetic to see. Happily for the safety of their nest, the brooding mother has no tell-tale feathers to attract the eye. Dense foliage no more conceals the male bird's brilliant coat than it can the tanager's or oriole's. ”

“ DESCRIPTION.—A horse-like animal at the first glance, owing to its lean head, long, flat, and deep neck, and high withers, but with cervine hind-quarters, lower than in front. The male is of an iron grey colour, intensified by age; the inside of the ears, lips, and chin are white; a large white patch on the throat, below which is the pendant tuft of black hair; the chest, stomach, and rings on the fetlocks, white; mane, throat-tuft and tip of tail, black. The female is a sandy or tawny colour, and is somewhat smaller than the male. ”

“ However, an intelligent friend of mine near Chichester is determined to try the experiment; and has this autumn, at the hazard of being laughed at, introduced a parcel of black-faced hornless rams among his horned western ewes. The black-faced poll-sheep have the shortest legs and the finest wool. ”

“ For apparel, they wear the tail of a cat, or some other small beast, hanging before them, and a cloak of sheep-skin, which hangs down to the middle of their thighs, turning it according to the weather, sometimes the drest side, and sometimes the hair next the body; for their sheep have hair instead of wool, and are party coloured like calves. ”

“ None of our improved breeds afford long, coarse hair or bristles; and it is a gratifying evidence of our decided improvement in this department of domestic animals, that our brush-makers are under the necessity of importing most of what they use from Russia and northern Europe. This improvement is manifest not only in the hair, but in the skin, which is soft and mellow to the touch; in the finer bones, shorter head, upright ears, dishing face, delicate muzzle, and mild eye; and in the short legs, low flanks, deep and wide chest, broad back, and early maturity. ”

“ Surface of the Body.—When a horse is in a good condition and well cared for, the coat is short, fine, glossy and smooth and the skin pliable and elastic. Healthy cattle have a smooth, glossy coat and the skin feels mellow and elastic. The fleece of sheep should appear smooth and have plenty of yolk, the skin pliable and light pink in color. When the coat loses its lustre and gloss and the skin becomes hard, rigid, thickened and dirty, it indicates a lack of nutrition and an unhealthy condition of the body. ”

“ This useful animal, ever faithful to his charge, reigns at the head of the flock, where he is better heard, and more attended to, than even the Shepherd himself. In the few remaining large tracts of land which are appropriated to the feeding of Sheep, this dog is of the utmost importance. ”

“ The wool is rather coarse; its yield is about 8 lbs.
The Cheviot has a long body, long face, long legs, and long ears. The chest projects slightly, and is rather narrow. The forehead is bare of wool; the legs and face are white, sometimes approaching to a dun shade. Weight from 70 to 80 lbs.; weight of fleece, from 3 to 4 lbs. The wool is of excellent quality, and is used largely in the manufacture of tweeds. The Cheviot is a mountain sheep, and, as might be expected, its flesh is well flavored. There are several crosses of the Cheviot with the Leicester, the Southdown, and the Shropshire. ”

“ So far as concerns conformation, a sheep should have a round barrel, wool thick and soft and with long fibre, and, while heavy all over the body, it should be thickest on the back and neck, and yet the belly also should be covered, for unless the belly was covered our ancestors were wont to call a sheep _apica_ and throw it out. ”

“ NO OTHER ANIMAL, even of the same order, possesses in so remarkable a degree the power of converting pasture into flesh as the Leicestershire sheep; the South Down and Cheviot, the two next breeds in quality, are, in consequence of the greater vivacity of the animal's nature, not equal to it in that respect, though in both the brain and chest are kept subservient to the greater capacity of the organs of digestion. ”

“ Like that tearful animal, it possesses a head and body which do not in the smallest degree appear to belong to each other. The longest, narrowest and boniest of calves' heads, so pallid and sickly in complexion, and so entirely hairless, as to appear not only dead, but neatly scraped and cleaned all ready for cooking, is joined—without the intervention of any neck to speak of—to a fat, pig-like body, very scantily clothed with short, bristly hairs. ”

“ For my part, I view it as a secretion, depending very much on good food and steadiness of temperature, and, therefore, indicative of a fine fleece only so far as the health of the animal is concerned. In the human being the state of the skin may often guide us, though blind-fold, to the quality of the hair, so that the latter may be pronounced either dry and coarse, or glossy, soft, and silky, as the skin may prove either harsh and ungrateful, or pleasant, and, if I may be allowed the expression, alkaline to the touch. ”

“ The sheep, too, is one of the most useful animals, its fleece or wool being used as a covering to man, and its flesh for food. It was only yesterday I read the [41] well-established fact that, from one pound of sheep’s wool a thread was spun so fine that it reached to the almost incredible distance of ninety-five miles, while one of ordinary fineness reached twenty-six miles. This covering grows so thick in winter that it enables them to bear cold which would be fatal to other animals. ”

“ The civet is an animal as large and thick as a tolerably great dog; it has a pointed muzzle; the eyes and ears are small; the whiskers like those of a cat; the skip spotted with white, black, and yellow; while its tail is as thick and long as that of a fox. It is a wild, cruel, and carnivorous animal, whose bite is dangerous. The Negroes take them by snares; and those who buy them keep them in iron cages, and feed them on raw flesh. ”

“ The finest furs are obtained from the Arctic and northern regions, and the lower the latitude the less full and silky the fur, till, at the torrid zone, fur gives place to harsh hair without any underwool. The finest and closest wools are possessed by the amphibious Carnivora and Rodentia, viz. seals, otters, beavers, nutrias and musquash, the beauty of which is not seen until after the stiff water or top hairs are pulled out or otherwise removed. In this class of animal the underneath wool of the belly is thicker than that of the back, while the opposite is true of those found on the land. ”

“ The squirrel has socks and mittens, and a tail broad enough for a blanket; the grouse is densely feathered down to the ends of his toes; and the wild sheep, besides his undergarment of fine wool, has a thick overcoat of hair that sheds off both the snow and the rain. Other provisions and adaptations in the dresses of animals, relating less to climate than to the more mechanical circumstances of life, are made with the same consummate skill that characterizes all the love work of Nature. ”

“ The fleece of the sheep is of two sorts, either short and harsh, or soft and woolly; the wool always preponderating in an exact ratio to the care, attention, and amount of domestication bestowed on the animal. The generic peculiarities of the sheep are the triangular and spiral form of the horns, always larger in the male when present, but absent in the most cultivated species; having sinuses at the base of all the toes of the four feet, with two rudimentary hoofs on the fore legs, two inguinal teats to the udder, with a short tail in the wild breed, but of varying length in the domesticated ”

“ I may, fitly, conclude my few remarks on this interesting breed with the following description of the desired points: The head should be light, airy, sensible, and, at the same time, full of dignity; it should have a certain amount of chops, and the forehead slightly wrinkled. The neck should be long and clean; the least looseness, or throatiness, is fatal to appearance. Where it joins the head, it should be fine, gradually widening to the shoulders. A long neck is most important, in the breed, as helping the scent, whereas, a short neck, not only would impede action, but pace, also. ”

“ The fact that he has lain down may be taken as an indication that improvement has taken place. The peculiarity is due to the sharp outline of the horse’s sternum inferiorly so that in lying down he is compelled to rest on his side and the whole weight of the body tends to compress the chest. In the ox, sheep, pig and dog, which can rest on the sternum, breathing can be carried on with comparative ease in the recumbent position, and these animals accordingly do not necessarily stand except in very extensive and violent affections of the chest. ”

“ With an old or middle-aged sheep we have no such sympathy—it has lived until it has grown into mutton, to become as great an ornament to the table as it once was to the field. What a beautiful expression may sometimes be found in the face of an heifer, with its large mild eyes and finely-moulded head! ”

“ During the warmer part of the summer days the fly goes about depositing its young in the nose of the sheep. The young then work their way upward into cavities of the head between the eyes, but not into the brain cavity. ”

“ These two looks at her have enabled us to see that she has a feminine appearance; that her head is small and neat in proportion to her body, with a waxy small horn, a mild but large eye, a broad muzzle, and that it is well set on her neck; that she has a good chest, and large deep paunch, with large full ribs, fuller below and joined to a rather high back bone; that is to say she has not the breadth of back we look for in a beef animal. ”

“ This fourth attitude brings in another force of its own towards the “make-up” of the dog’s patterns of hair. When lying with his head supported on his paws the lower part of his chest is closely applied to the upper or flexor surface of the fore legs, and the long-continued pressure of the latter against the downward or normal streams of hair on the chest leads to its slope being reversed. This is shown in two wide patterns of the whorl, feathering and crest, Fig. 40, resembling closely the corresponding patterns on the chest of a horse. ”

“ She has a short neck, and a long tail, with a bunch of coarse hair on the end [82] of it. Her head is larger than that of a horse, and her nose is wider. Her ears stand out on each side of her head, and above them she has a pair of horns that spread out.
4. Her hoof is not round, like that of a horse, but is split into two parts, and is called a cloven hoof. She has a thick coat of coarse hair, which keeps her warm in all but the very coldest weather.
5. In front, the cow has six teeth on her under jaw, but none on her upper jaw. In place of teeth is a ridge hard as a bone. ”

“ As the hoofs of fine-woolled sheep grow rapidly, turning up in front and under at the sides, they must be clipped as often as once a year, or they become unsightly, give an awkward, hobbling gait to the animal, and the part of the horn which turns under at the sides holds dirt or dung in constant contact with the soles, and even prevents it from being readily shaken or washed out of the cleft of the foot in the natural movement of the sheep about the pastures, as would take place were the hoof in its proper place. ”

“ The wool of sheep is also much injured by them; the tails and manes of horses are converted into such tangled masses, that the hair has to be cut close off, by which the natural beauty of these valuable animals is impaired. ”