[Jacob-list] colours

[gordon johnston]

Neal wrote << I picked up a book in England entitled British Sheep Breeds published by the British Wool Marketing Board. This book states that the Jacob was imported from "the former Cape Colony". (I assumed that this is the Gibraltar area.)>>

No, this is South Africa.

<< If I had to stake money on it, I would bet on Jacob sheep as horned, piebald isolates of the Viking type sheep, >>

Certainly there are some very Jacoby-looking markings  amongst Icelandics and Shetlands (esp the Foula type), and some breeds such as Hebrideans and North Ronaldsays sometimes have four horns,  but you are ignoring the fact that Jacobs are long tailed sheep, which reached Britain by the southern route, whereas what I think you mean by 'Viking type sheep' are all short tailed - Northern Shorttailed Sheep in fact.  This is a physical difference in the number of vertebrae in the tail and is a good marker of the breeds early origins.
Juliet in Scotland
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