Island Sheep— The island of Skokholm (" My Dream Island
") has always something new, aliquid novi, like Africa, one of the newest things is not a bird but a sheep. The comely little Soay sheep sent there by the Duke of Bedford have flourished except in one regard ; and this failure has a curious scientific interest. All the lambs were male lambs. Now the Western islands in general have a strange influence on fertility. Sheep introduced into Jura (they were, I think, chiefly cheviots) proved at first to be singularly barren. What has happened more lately I do not know, and should like to know. Travellers from Skye in late autumn will have a lively and rather a grim memory of the flocks of sheep that drive all passengers from the upper deck. The island sheep, great flocks of them, are regularly taken to the mainland for the winter and early spring months. Is this refusal to produce ewes by the Skokhohn mothers an indication of a half-failure in breeding vigour, as it is in some insects, for example ? The point is perhaps worth research, though it is not suggested by the owners of this Pembrokeshire island.
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