Very interesting ! We had a look at the link you sent. Phenotypically, the
sheep look very like some Jacob crosses we produced with a
Polwarth/Dorset/Ryeland mix dam, and the colour patterning is typical of
Jacob crosses, also of some Shetlands and the piebald Soay. The only thing
which looks similar to Hebrideans is the mid-length tail (northern
shorttailed but, like Manx Loaghtan, longer than the tiny tails of
Shetlands, Soay, Gotland etc). However, Hebs only became the breed they are
now in the late 1800s when black individuals were taken off the islands down
to England, where they were kept in parklands as prized novelties, so
unlikely to be sent as live food on sailing vessels. Prior to that time
they were a mixed colour breed, with black, white, brown and varicoloured
individuals, as far as can be ascertained, but at the same time as the
blacks were taken to England and the browns to the Isle of Man, the original
'land sheep' of the Highlands and islands became extinct (replaced mostly by
the Scottish Blackface). Within the original spectrum black would be
recessive. Many (about 20%) of modern Hebs are black dominant, which may or
may not be from past mixing in parklands with Jacobs or Black Welsh Mountain
(BWM apparently also used to be black recessive but have changed over the
years, but Jacobs are definitely black dominant). Hebrideans are also a
polycerate breed, usually horned in both sexes, as are Jacobs. The sheep in
the pictures appeared to be either 2 horned or polled.
Fleece - the website claims that old Scottish breeds had superfine wool. I
know of no evidence of this. The Shetland breed has been consistently
selected since 1927 for fine fleece, but more typically the old Scottish
breeds had double coats, to a greater or lesser extent, with a fine, but not
superfine, undercoat and a hairier coarse topcoat. Fine wool in the Arapawa
would reflect their Merino background.
The fact that these sheep shed their fleeces is not necessarily a sign of
being related to breeds which still do so, but more a result of being wild -
if you don't shed your fleece when Man does not do it for you, you die
early, so a fairly straightforward bit of natural selection for a trait
which is in the past of all sheep but has mainly been bred out by Man so
that the wool stays on the sheep and can be collected for our use.

I have heard that many of the islands in the southern seas were populated
with sheep by passing ships of various nations, just as happened in the
north by early explorers, so the resulting sheep would be a mix of genes
from all that varied input. To try to work out which island got which genes
is interesting but probably impossible. I think the Arapawas look great as
a breed unto themselves !

Gevan wrote : <<I am breeding in
particular for the recessive self-colored agouti, dark phase coat (that is,
phenotypically a solid black), but combined additionally with homozygous
recessive
white spotting >>
What a shame the Atlantic divides us Gevan - we too are breeding our Soays
for solid black and we have a bit of white spotting in there too - waiting
to see if we get any spotty ones this lambing.
We mainly breed Hebrideans so that is probably why we selected for Black
Soay originally, but we have now realised that there are very few here in
Britain, except on Hirta itself, so we are attempting to maintain a black
flock to conserve the trait.
Juliet and Gordon in Scotland