66 The 'Book of the Goat. 



standing certain words of command. " Two ' ka paters ' 

 (the local name for these ' neuter ' goats) have been seen to 

 lead a flock of 2000 sheep through a good-sized river in 

 lots of 100 or more at a time." A herd of some fifteen 

 of these Boer goats was imported in 1880 by the Duke 

 of Wellington of that day, when President of the British 

 Goat Society, and two males were presented to the institu- 

 tion as travelling stud-goats for the use of members. 

 The Boer goat has played a most important part in build- 

 ing up the Angora goat industry in South Africa, having 

 supplied the mothers of nearly all the Cape Angoras. 

 " But for the fact," says Schreiner, "that there were 

 several millions of Boer goats thoroughly accustomed to 

 the country, to furnish innumerable ewes for grading-up 

 purposes, the industry would .still have been in its 

 infancy." A good idea of the Boer goat may be obtained 

 from the picture of Sedgemere Chancellor (page 158), 

 which would very well pass for one of this breed. 



The Dtuarf Coat oj- ' Guinea. 



A description of the various breeds of goats would 

 not be complete without some reference to this liliputian 

 variety of the genus Capra. It can only be regarded in 

 the light of a curiosity, however, being of little use for 

 milk, although an African explorer who met with 

 this animal largely in the neighbourhood of Lake Tchad 

 reports it as giving a very fair amount of milk for its 

 size. These goats, singularly enough, have been some- 

 what largely imported into Europe. Several were on view 

 some thirty years ago at the Zoological Gardens, Regent's 

 Park, one of which was exhibited at the Crystal Palace 

 Show in 1875. Mr. Sam Woodiwiss in his early days of 

 goat-breeding kept several specimens of this dwarf goat at 

 East Finchley, and I have met with them also in the 

 Jardin des Plantes in Paris. 



