At  the  moment  of  writing  this,  we  can  see  from  our
study-window  seven  out  of  a  flock  of  a  score  feeding
so  closely  crowded  as  to  have  their  fleeces  in  actual
contact.  And  yet  the  field  is  by  no  means  small,  and
other  parts  of  it  have  grass  equal  in  goodness  to  the
corner  where  these  seven  sheep  are  nibbling  it  to  the
very  root,  while  the  rest  of  their  companions  are  only
at  a  few  feet  distance,  in  the  same  quarter  of  the
field.
In  order  to  arrive  at  the  cause  of  this  sociality,
which  seems  not  only  to  be  without  any  reason-
able motive  arising  from  mutual  advantage,  but  to
be  rather  disadvantageous  from  the  pasture  being
exhausted  by  the  crowd  of  feeders,  we  must  con-
sider these  sheep  as  domesticated,  and,  of  course,
in  different  circumstances  from  the  species  in  their
original  state  of  wildness  and  freedom,  in  which
such  sociality  may  serve  some  important  purpose.
