250 The 'Book of the Goat. 



it could not have been from any selfish desire to be 

 relieved of the pressure of an accumulation in her udder 

 that led her to act in this manner. On the contrary, from 

 the way in which these hungry little creatures 

 tugged at her teats, with the incessant bobbing up of their 

 heads to induce a better flow, the process must have 

 caused pain rather than pleasure. Yet would she 

 quietly stand chewing the cud, as satisfied and con- 

 tented as though feeling happy from the knowledge 

 that she was doing a kind action. 



Goats are not infrequently used as foster-mothers for 

 young animals other than their own species. I have 

 myself had a calf partly reared in this way by letting it 

 suck a large goat that gave me over three quaris of milk 

 daily, and the calf thrived uncommonly well. The foster- 

 mother in this case had to be held on a raised bench to 

 enable the bovine offspring to get at her udder. A letter 

 once appeared in the. Field newspaper, with the 

 writer's name and address appended, which stated that 

 at Feering, in Essex, a goat which had two years before 

 produced two kids, after these were weaned, suckled 

 first a young pig, afterwards two fawns, and finally two 

 more fallow-deer fawns, which she was then fondly 

 bringing up. All these several animals were successively 

 fostered on her until they were weaned, and the milk 

 flow was still maintained. 



The most remarkable case I ever heard of a goat acting 

 the part of foster-mother, and which was related to me 

 on good authority, names, &c., being given, was as 

 follows : "A gentleman of good position was left a 

 widower with an infant child, her mother having died on 

 giving her birth. He was of an eccentric turn of mind, 

 and could not bear the idea of his child being nursed by 

 another woman, and at the same time he strongly objected 

 to bringing it up by hand with a feeding-bottle. In this 



