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Isle of Man sheep are small on the hills, seldom exceeding eight to ten pounds the quarter, and producing fleeces of short or middle wool weighing two and a half pounds. They have much resemblance to the Welsh sheep, and have most of their peculiarities and bad points. Sheep used to keep their own places upon the mountains without fence of any kind, but the land is now enclosed. A good many of the shepherds are Scotsmen. The Manx shepherds turn their hand to any farm-work, and the farms and flocks not being large several farmers act as their own shepherds, assisted by a son or some other farm-hand. The sheep when taken from the mountains have a way of returning to their old haunts, as is the custom with sheep in Wales and elsewhere. The Manx shepherd often makes a pet of some of his flock, and particular favourites may be seen running to meet him as soon as he appears.
On the mountains are small yards made of stone without mortar, and called paabs; these are used for catching sheep in, and would seem to be much the same as the "rude enclosures" of Shetland, which are called punds. The loaghtan, or "laughtan," as it is variously spelt (loagh is pronounced like the Scotch loch), which is the name popularly given to the brown flocks of the old Manx breed, it is really the name of a colour, not of the breed itself. The loaghtan is said by some to be a purely Manx breed and only known to the islanders by the Manx name. Similar sheep are to be found in Shetland, though not in Orkney, and a few also in Scotland. There sometimes occurs in a loaghtan flock white sheep with patches of brown, but when a flock of loaghtans is named it is understood that brown sheep are meant. They have two and in some cases four horns.
The race had become almost extinct in the Isle of Man in the earlier part of the last century, their place being taken by larger sheep brought over by Scotsmen who rented Manx commons. Manx sheep are very small and finely shaped, a well-defined and handsome variety of a breed which for want of a better name I call the short—tailed sheep of Northern Europe. They were no doubt at one time wild; and on the island of Soa, one of the St. Kilda group, are still practically in a state of nature. The domestic short— tailed sheep is found pure in Iceland, the Faroe Isles, -the Shetlands, Isle of Man, and a few in the Outer Hebrides. Probably there may still be some in the more remote Scotch highlands and in Ireland. The breed runs in peculiar colours—white, black, brown, grey, and frequently in piebald mixtures of these colours. They have a tendency to produce four horns, and sometimes have even five or six. The Shetland shawl— wool is, of course, renowned.
The Shetlanders, Faroes, and Icelanders never clip these sheep, but simply pull the wooi off when it becomes loose. Black four-horned sheep found in some English parks are invariably described as St. Kildas, and some no doubt came originally from there. It is said, however, that the only sheep there now are the Scottish blackface, and the little brown, nearly wild flock just mentioned as occurring on the Isle of Soa.
There are local shepherds’ dogs in various districts in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, as well as in the Isle of Man, but these local breeds cannot be regarded as distinct, since they lack uniformity of type.