DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN INDIA. 



599 



frequently have cases of this offense before them, and inflict ab- 

 surdly inadequate fines. 



A quaint belief is that in dry desert places where wells for- 

 merly existed goats will group themselves in a circle round the 

 ancient well-brink, though not a trace of it is visible to the keen- 



FiG. 2.^MiLcn Goats. 



est human eye. Those who sketch animals may have noticed 

 that goats at rest have a way of grouping themselves as if posing 

 for their portraits. It is possible 

 that this unconscious trick is at 

 the bottom of the well-brink belief. 

 So far as I know, there are no say- 

 ings which notice the fine carriage 

 of the head and the elegant horse- 

 like gait of this beautiful animal. 

 The Indian goat, as a rule, is much 

 taller and of more slender build 

 than the European animal. 



From an administrative and eco- 

 nomic point of view there are serious 

 objections to the goat, which is one 

 of the plagues of the Forest Depart- 

 ment of the Government. It is the 

 poor man's animal, and is supposed 

 to cost nothing to keep. Every 

 green shoot is nibbled off as soon 

 as it peeps above the ground, and 

 young trees are promptly destroyed by creatures which sjiend 

 half their time on their hind legs, and have an effective reach up 

 to the height of a man's head. 



Fig. 3.— a Sporting Man. 



