Four-horned Sheep in Scotland

Abstract

So little seems to be known regarding the early occurrence of Scottish four-horned sheep that the following record will bear repetition. It occurs, almost as an aside, in the account of the parish of Moffat, in the lowland counties of Dumfries and Lanark, published in Sir John Sinclair's “Statistical Account of Scotland,” vol. ii., p. 292, 1792. The writer of the account, Rev. Mr. Alex. Brown, says:—“It is not long since the sheep in this part of the country, were of the four-horned kind; a few of which, it is said, remain still in some parts of Nithsdale. Their body is smaller, but their wool finer than those of the present breed. Their want of weight for the butcher, and greater difficulty and danger in lambing have banished them from this place.”