Ch. XL.] ON GOATS AND DEER. 505 



distinct animals yet admit that the difference between them is so very 

 slight as hardly to merit notice. It is, indeed, not only well known that 

 the sexual intercourse between tiie goat and the ewe, as well as that 

 with the ram and female goat, have been productive, but that those hybrids 

 have also been prolific*. The internal structure of the goat presents no 

 material difference from that of the sheep ; and in a state of nature they are 

 both "alpine animals, fearless of crag and cliff, and dwelling, indeed by 

 preference, among the steepest and most inaccessible summits of lofty 

 mountains t-" 



Although originally natives of a warmer climate than that of this coun- 

 try, yet they have been here long domiciliated, and were formerly kept in 

 large flocks in the mountainous parts of Wales and other hilly districts of 

 the United Kingdom ; from their milk, indeed, much cheese was made ; and 

 the flesh appeared upon many a wealthy person's table. The enclosure of 

 hind has, however, in a great measure banished them from the soil, as they 

 nip the hedges, and bound over the highest common fences. Their flesh, 

 it must be also admitted, is far inferior to that of the sheep when full 

 grown ; and from these causes they are now seldom found except in single 

 pairs : kept by some persons for their milk, which is both light and nutri- 

 tious, as well as by stable-keepers, from a very prevalent idea that their 

 odour, though somewhat offensive, has a wholesome effect upon horses. 



We should hardly, therefore, have thought it necessary to notice the 

 subject were it not to repel, so far as lies in our power, the prejudice which 

 in this country so generally reigns against the Jlesh of kid, as well as 

 against that of the older animal. Now in all southern countries, kid is as 

 regularly served to table as lamb, and is by most persons considered as 

 the more delicate of the two : the flavour is certainly higher, and has no- 

 thing of that rankness which is attributed to the goat. The rearing of 

 them may not, it is true, be profitable upon good pasture land ; but as 

 tliey browse upon the furze and heath of moor-land, consuming ])lants 

 which are rejected by other animals, we conceive that they might be kept 

 with advantage among those flocks of sheep which are fed upon the up- 

 lands. There are, indeed, large tracts in the county of Surrey, not far 

 from London, so v/orthless as to produce little else than heath, and which 

 consequently command such a trifling rent that were any speculative man 

 to hire an extent sufficiently large to employ a herdsman, and erect a few 

 common huts to afford shelter to the animals in bad weather, together with 

 a little hay in winter, we are persuaded that the plan would return unusual 

 interest for the small capital to be employed. 



In proof of this, it may be observed that, independently of the milk, — 

 which could probably be disposed of in the neighbourhood when the kids 

 were weaned, as it strongly resembles that of the cow, and is much sought 

 after by invalids under the name of " goat's whey|," — the female almost 

 invariablv produces two, and sometimes three kids, which there can be 

 little dou!)t would be soon relished as a delicacy by our epicures, and paid 

 for accordingly, were the flesh once regularly introduced into the markets. 

 The skins, also, of both old and young are valuable ; and notwithstanding 

 the flesh of the former, though closely resembling mutton, is rather strong 

 tasted, yet it is not unwholesome, and certainly would not be rejected by 

 the poor. We state this as a fact within our own I<nowledge, as we have 



* Cuvier — Regne Animal, torn. i. p. 277. 



f Wilson 4011 Domestic Animals, Ess. iv. 



X We have known a she-goat, of no extraordinary value, to produce two quarts a day 

 for several weeks after kidding. In the city of Lisbon it is more commonly used than 

 that of cows. 



