106 



GOATS. 



Chap. III. 



Mr. Clark remarks, ' k it is not rare to see their teats touching 

 the ground." The following cases are worth notice as pre- 

 senting unusual points of variation. According to Godron, 101 

 the mammae differ greatly in shape in different breeds, being 

 elongated in the common goat, hemispherical in the Angora 

 race, and bilobed and divergent in the goats of Syria and 

 Nubia. According to this same author, the males of certain 

 breeds have lost their usual offensive odour. In one of the 

 Indian breeds the males and females have horns of widely- 

 different shapes ; 102 and in some breeds the females are desti- 

 tute of horns. 103 M. Ramu of Nancy informs rne that many 

 of the goats there bear on the upper part of the throat a pair 

 of hairy appendages, 70 mm. in length and about 10 mm. 

 in diameter, which in external appearance resemble those 

 above described on the jaws of pigs. The presence of inter- 

 digital pits or glands on all four feet has been thought to 

 characterise the genus Ovis, and their absence to be charac- 

 teristic of the genus Capra ; but Mr. Hodgson has found that 

 they exist in the front feet of the majority of Himalayan 

 goats. 104 Mr. Hodgson measured the intestines in two goats of 

 the Dugu race, and he found that the proportional length of tho 

 great and small intestines differed considerably. In one of these 

 goats the csecuni was thirteen inches, and in the other no less 

 than thirty-six inches in length ! 



101 'De l'Espece,' torn. i. p. 406. 

 Mr. Clark also refers to differences in 

 the shape of the mammae. Gordon 

 states that in the Nubian race the 

 scrotum is divided into two lobes ; 

 and Mr. Clark gives a ludicrous proof 

 of this fact, for he saw in the Mauritius 

 a male goat of the Muscat breed 

 purchased at a high price for a female 

 in full milk. These differences in the 

 scrotum are probably not due to 



descent from distinct species : for 

 Mr. Clark states that this part varies 

 much in form. 



102 Mr. Clark, 'Annals and Mag. 

 of Nat. Hist.,' vol. ii. (2nd series), 

 18-18, p. 361. 



103 Desmarest, ' Encyclop. Method. 

 Mammalogie,' p. 480. 



104 ' Journal of Asiatic Soc. of 

 Bengal,' vol. xvi. 1847, pp. 1020, 

 1025. 



