Four-horned Sheep

Abstract

MR. RITCHIE'S note on four-horned sheep in NATURE of March 6 is interesting, but I am inclined to doubt whether there ever was, in Scotland or any other country, a breed in which four horns are normal. No doubt it is possible to fix this character in the male sex by careful selection, as has been done by some breeders of the spotted or Barbary sheep (sometimes called Spanish, Syrian, or Zulu sheep); but even these have not succeeded in fixing the character in the female sex. I have evidence, in the shape of specimens or photographs, of the existence of four-horned sheep in North and South Africa, Mongolia, China, the Himalayas, Baluchistan, and Chile. The Iceland breed was supposed to be four-horned, and no doubt four-horned examples were often found amongst them, a specimen I have being precisely similar in type to an abnormally four-horned Shetland.