The Sheep.

The nature of the merino is very feral. They prefer the high mountain-range. When alarmed a blowing whistle is made through the nostrils, and the instinct is to make upwards. They also stamp with the fore foot. In mustering large flocks they are driven along the mountain-range by shepherds walking a distance apart, so making a line from top to bottom of the hill, and forcing the sheep in one direction for three to nine miles, thus massing them up to a suitable place to force them on the lower flats or valley-bottom, from whence they are driven to the yards.

Sometimes very large losses occur even in careful management, and when no person is within a considerable distance of the animals, who are “stringing” along in long lines, looking from a distance like many long snakes wriggling along the face of the hill. This may be called “the follow-my-leader instinct.” If the first sheep in a string should enter a creek-hollow at the wrong place, and be unable to climb the opposite side, those following may keep coming on and tread underfoot their leaders, who may be all smothered, and make a dying bridge for the remainder to pass over. It is a difficult matter to stop those following when the danger is observed, for even two or three men may not at first be able to “break the string” and direct those following into a safer course.

Rams, when the season is off, will collect together in parties of three to fifteen, and many, if fences allow, will come to the gate of the ram-paddock as to their proper home.

If black sheep are bred together their progeny is also black, or grey. The merino gives the more uniform black, often with forehead and tail white. I have a flock of eight hundred old sheep and some two hundred and fifty lambs, crossbred merino-Lincoln. Having started this flock eleven years ago, my returns for wool are below the average for white fleece. Many of these sheep have a small white spot under either eye, and in light-coloured ones the belly and thighs are