LOST SHEEP
Homing pigeons, homing cats, dogs, horses and even fish are given publicity. Homing sheep are not so renowned and yet sheep are plainly much affected by environment When little Bo-peep lost her flock it was almost certainly because they had not been in her possession very long, having come from market, a mixed selection from half a dozen grazings. This, at least, was inferred by a shepherd I was talking to not long ago. Some of his sheep had gone astray and he was recovering them, a fairly easy task since experience had taught him to know just where to expect them. 'Sheep from this side of the hill wander north-west,' he said. 'Sheep from the other side never come this way.' The answer may have been the natural. barrier, for sheep become conditioned to certain terrain, and even the rogue isn't likely to make for John o' Groats unless she happens to have had strong ties with that part of the world. Homing sheep may be detected by the flockmaster who keeps his eye on the incomers that haven't settled down. When they 'home' they don't get into the newspapers very Much unless under the notice which reads, 'Strayed from X, three half- bred ewes. . . .' Where they were going, or what prompted them, no one knows or cares. Sheep are notoriously stupid creatures.
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