44 THE COMMON GOAT. 



with the common sheep, Buffon, and many other naturalists, have 

 supposed it to be the primitive race of that animal. Whether or 

 riot this be the case, is, however, a problem of which the solu- 

 tion is difficult, if not impossible. 



THE COMMON GOAT 



Occupies the next place in the scale of animal existence, and 

 although inferior in utility to the sheep, has, in many respects, a 

 .visible affinity to that quadruped ; but the services of the latter 

 cause the-goat to be held in less estimation, and its domestication 

 and improvement to be considered as an object less worthy of 

 attention. The goat is more hardy than the sheep, and in every 

 respect better adapted to a state of liberty. It is stronger, 

 swifter, and more playful ; not easily confined to a flock, but 

 choosing its own pasture ; it delights to roam at large. It is 

 easily sustained, and appears to have a stronger inclination for 

 liberty than for delicacy of food. For this reason, it is valuable 

 chiefly to the inhabitants of wild and mountainous countries, 

 where it finds an ample supply from the spontaneous productions 

 of nature, in situations inaccessible to most other quadrupeds. 

 Goats clirnb the loftiest rocks, and stand secure on the brink of 

 the most abrupt precipices ; for this purpose, their feet are ad- 

 mirably formed by nature, the hoofs being hollowed underneath 

 with sharp edges, resembling the inside of a spoon, which pre- 

 vents them from sliding off the craggy rocks which they fre- 

 quent. This singular conformation of the feet of this animal 

 exhibits a remarkable instance of the wisdom and goodness of the 

 Creator, in so perfectly adapting its organization to its instincts. 



The goat delights in uncultivated heath, or the shrubby rock, 

 rather than in the fields cultivated by human industry. It bears 

 well either a hot or a cold climate. Its milk is of an agreeable 

 taste, highly nutritive, and medicinal, especially in consumptive 

 cases. Several places, in the mountainous parts of Ireland, 

 Scotland, and Wales, are much resorted to by valetudinarians, 

 for the purpose of drinking the milk of the goat, and its effects 

 are often found salutary in vitiated and debilitated habits. 



Sonnini, in his edition of Buffbn's Natural History, gives a 

 curious instance of the readiness with which the goat will permit 

 itself to be sucked by animals of a different kind, and even of a 

 much larger size than itself. He tells us, that he saw, in the 

 year 1780, a foal, that had lost its mother, thus nourished by a 

 goat, which was placed on a barrel, in order that the foal might 

 suck with more convenience. The foal followed its nurse to 

 pasture, as if she had been its mother ; and was attended with 

 the greatest care by the goat, which always called it back by her 

 bleatings, when it wandered to any distance from her. 



