Varieties of Coats. 19 



describes as the common goat, the Angora, the Cashmere, 

 and the Nubian. Neither of these views appears to me 

 correct. There must be either two distinct breeds only, 

 or there are considerably more than four. The breeds I 

 refer to are the Cashmere and Angora representing the 

 wool-bearing races, and the other goats whose coats are 

 composed chiefly of hair. This is the great distinction, 

 but, in the case of the Angora at least, not the only one, 

 as I shall point out when describing this animal. At the 

 same time, as regards the nature of the coat, it is a dif- 

 ference which is not so much one of kind as of degree, 

 since all goats possess the two coverings, wool and hair. 

 There is a downy undergrowth, and sometimes of consider- 

 able quantity, in our own breeds, as may be easily observed 

 on examination ; it serves as a protection against wet and 

 cold, and is present, I believe, to some extent in all quad- 

 rupeds, thus corresponding to the down between the 

 feathers of birds. 



M. Joseph Crepin, a more recent authority than those 

 quoted above, in his book on "La Chevre," published in 

 Paris in 1906, devotes a chapter of some 140 pages to 

 " The Breeds of Goats throughout the World," and as 

 he has applied himself for many years to the study of this 

 subject, and has had special facilities for acquiring infor- 

 mation upon it, I shall not hesitate to quote at some 

 length from his valuable work. This writer introduces the 

 subject by remarking that " The European breeds are so 

 mixed up that it would take a long time to disengage and 

 reconstitute the types proper to each country. Do we not 

 find," he asks, " side by side in every breed some horned 

 and others hornless, some long- and others short-haired, 

 and, again, some self-coloured and others polychromatic? 

 . . . The difficulty met with in making such distinctions 

 has led the public to form the most erroneous ideas in 

 appreciating and classifying the caprine race. Do we not 



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