Íslenskar landbúnaðarrannsóknir - 01.03.1970, Page 14

12 ÍSLENZKAR LANDBÚNAÐARRANNSÓKNIR

Colours 13—15, 17. Brown pigment present. Two patterns visible
Main colour Name in Names
number present work used previously Reference
13 Greybrown badgerface Grámórugolsótt (Icel.) Adalsteinsson (1960)
14 Greybrown mouflon Grámórubotnótt (Icel.) Adalsteinsson (1960)
15 Brown badgerface mouflon Mógolsubotnótt (Icel.) Adalsteinsson (1960)
17 Greybrown badgei face-mouflon •- Grámórugolsubotnótt (Icel.) (Should be possible, but not yet observed)
'I'he tan colour described above is known
to occur in the Welsh Mountain shecp
(Roberts, 1928), in the Orkney sheep (per-
sonal observation), in the Australian Mer-
ino (Hayman and Cooper, 1964) and pos-
sibly also in some of the red Mediterranean
breeds of sheep (Mason, 1967).
Some otherwise white sheep may show
small black or brown spots on the body
or on the extremities. These spots usually
show complete lack of synnnetry with re-
spect to location, and are therefore pheno-
typically different from pigmented areas
in nonwhite sheep with extensive white
markings (see p. 17). Sheep with those
small black and brown spots are therefore
classified as white.
Colour 02 — grey (Plates I, 3; I, 5; II, 1;
II, 2 and II, 5)
The outercoat fibres are mainly black,
and the undercoat fibres white. There is,
however, very great variation in the grey
colour at birth. Sorne lambs are born al-
rnost completely black and can only be
distinguished from black by close inspect-
ion.
The places to be examined most closely
for occurrence of white fibres are the nose,
the inside of the ears, the front and rear
flanks, the feet above the hoofs, and the
scrotum on ram lambs. If no trace of white
fibres or a lighter colour at the base of
the birthcoat is found in those places, the
lamb can almost certainly be clescribed as
black. If any of the above mentioned
places sliow clear signs of white fibres, the
lamb is definitely going to develop a grey
colour of the type described above. One
exception to this rule should be mention-
ed, however. Sonie lambs, seemingly hete-
rozygous for white markings, may be born
with a few white hairs on the top of the
head. This has no connection with grey
colour at all, if the criteria given above
do not confirm the presence of grey colour.
The other extreme of grey colour at