34 The 'Book of the Goat. 



raised to the dignity of a " breed," is the goat of " Le 

 Massif Central," the type of which this author admits to be 

 "badly fixed," and regards as " resulting from a cross 

 between a degenerate Pyrenean and the common goat found 

 in every latitude." This animal, in the illustration in 

 the book referred to, has indeed all the appearance of 

 a common hornless Irish goat, a similitude which is further 

 borne out by the description. We learn that this goat, 

 which is met with chiefly in the neighbourhood of Poitou, 

 is meagre-looking, with short prick ears and a straight 

 forehead, but finer at the muzzle than the Alpine or 

 Pyrenean. The face is streaked on each side with a white 

 line from under the eyes to the nostrils. " The colour is a 

 tawny brown, or black, the hair on the body long, 

 especially on the back and hindquarters, but short at the 

 neck and head, though this varies with different specimens, 

 some having hair of medium length and others quite 

 short" corresponding, in fact, to the common goat. 



THE PYRENEAN. We have it on the authority also of 

 the breeder from whose book I have just quoted that in the 

 Pyrenean chain there are many varieties of goats, but from 

 what he tells us these varieties appear to be a heterogeneous 

 lot made up of crossings between the original mountain 

 breed and various other breeds from neighbouring coun- 

 tries, whence they have either wandered or been imported, 

 including those of Spain, Malta, Algeria, and even Thibet. 

 The Pyrenean goat proper, however, is the Bearnese, a 

 breed we have seen specimens of in England, some of 

 which in 1880 were exhibited and crossed with our Anglo- 

 Nubians, but of these I am unable to give a very satis- 

 factory account. If size and bone were the principal 

 objects in view in goat-breeding I should recommend using 

 the Pyrenean as much as possible, for those imported 

 specimens were undoubtedly the largest she-goats ever 

 seen in this country. Great size, however, and a corre- 



