[Illustration: SKELETON OF THE SHEEP AS COVERED BY THE MUSCLES.
1. The intermaxillary bone. 2. The nasal bones. 3. The upper jaw. 4. The
union of the nasal and upper jaw-bones. 5. The union of the molar and
lachrymal bones. 6. The orbits of the eye. 7. The frontal bone. 8. The
lower jaw. 9. The incisor teeth, or nippers. 10. The molars or grinders.
11. The ligament of the neck supporting the head. 12. The seven
vertebrae, or the bones of the neck. 13. The thirteen vertebrae, or bones
of the back. 14. The six vertebrae of the loins. 15. The sacral bone.
16. The bones of the tail, varying in different breeds from twelve to
twenty-one. 17. The haunch and pelvis. 18. The eight true ribs, with
their cartilages. 19. The five false ribs, or those that are not
attached to the breast-bone. 20. The breast-bone. 21. The scapula, or
shoulder-blade. 22. The humerus, bone of the arm, or lower part of the
shoulder. 23. The radius, or bone of the fore-arm. 24. The ulna or
elbow. 25. The knee with its different bones. 26. The metacarpal or
shank-bones--the larger bones of the leg. 27. A rudiment of the smaller
metacarpal. 28. One of the sessamoid bones. 29. The first two bones of
the foot--the pasterns. 30. The proper bones of the foot. 31. The
thigh-bone. 32. The stifle-joint and its bone--the patella. 33. The
tibia, or bone of the upper part of the leg. 34. The point of the hock.
35. The other bones of the hock. 36. The metatarsal bones, or bone of
the hind-leg. 37. Rudiment of the small metatarsal. 38. A sessamoid
bone. 39. The first two bones of the foot--the pasterns. 40. The proper
bones of the foot.]
DIVISION. _Vertebrata_--possessing a back-bone.
CLASS. _Mammalia_--such as give suck.
ORDER. _Ruminantia_--chewing the cud.
FAMILY. _Capridae_--the goat kind.
GENUS. _Oris_--the sheep family.
Of this _Genus_ there are three varieties:
ORIS, AMMON, or ARGALI.
_Oris Musmon._
_Oris Aries_, or Domestic Sheep.
Of the latter--with which alone this treatise is concerned--there are
about forty well known varieties. Between the _oris_, or sheep, and the
_capra_, or goat, another _genus_ of the same family, the distinctions
are well marked, although considerable resemblance exists between them.
The horns of the sheep have a spiral direction, while those of the goat
have a direction upward and backward; the sheep, except in a single wild
variety, has no beard, while the goat is bearded; the goat, in his
highest state of improvement, when he is made to produce wool of a
fineness unequalled by the sheep--as in the Cashmere breed--is mainly,
and always, externally covered with hair, while the hair on the sheep
may, by domestication, be reduced to a few coarse hairs, or got rid of
altogether; and, finally, the pelt or skin of the goat has thickness
very far exceeding that of the sheep.
The age of sheep is usually reckoned, not from the time that they are
dropped, but from the first shearing; although the first year may thus
include fifteen or sixteen months, and sometimes more. When doubt exists
relative to the age, recourse is had to the teeth, since there is more
uncertainty about the horn in this animal than in cattle; ewes that have
been early bred, appearing always, according to the rings on the horn, a
year older than others that have been longer kept from the ram.