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Home Nature-Study Course. 



GOATS. 



Preliminary work. — This animal harnessed to a cart is second only to the 

 donkey in the child's estimation. Therefore, the beginning of this lesson may 

 well be a span of goats thus employed. At least the lesson should never be 

 given v^rithout an opportunity for the pupils to make direct observations on the 

 animal's appearance and habits. Goats are among our most interesting domesti- 

 cated animals, and their history is closely interwoven with the history of the 

 development of civilization. A large part of the flocks of the Nomads were goats, 

 their milk and flesh were used for food, their hair for raiment. In America 

 goats do not play so important a part as they do in Europe, a census a few years 

 ago showing that in Germany alone there were three million of these ani- 

 mals. In order to understand the peculiarities of form and habit of the goat it 

 is necessary to study it as a wild animal ; e. g., the pet goat naturally climbs to 

 the highest points accessible ; in the country it may be seen on top of stone piles 

 or other objects and in the city suburbs its form may be discerned on the roofs 

 of shanties and stables. This instinct for climbing still lingers in the domestic 

 breeds, and the children will be much more interested in it if they realize that to 

 the goat's wild ancestors agile climbing was a necessity, since they lived in the 

 mountains on almost inaccessible, rocky peaks. It is a common saying that the 

 goat will eat anything, and much sport is made of this peculiarity. This fact 

 has more meaning to us when we realize that the wild goats living in high alti- 

 tudes where there was little vegetation were obliged to find sustenance on lichens, 

 moss and such scant vegetation as they could find. 



Peer, Twenty-first Annual Report Bureau of Animal Industry U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Saanen goats in Switzerland. 

 LESSOX XXX. 



THE GOAT. 



Purpose. — To call attention to the structure of the goat and its habits. 

 Obscriritious. — 



I. Compare the general shape of a goat to tliat of a sheep and tell 

 the difference. 



