B. VI.] THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 165 



sows produce excellent pigs from the first ; others do not 

 produce good offspring and pigs till they are grown up. 

 Some persons say that if one of the eyes of a sow is put out, 

 she generally speaking dies very soon. Most of them live 

 fifteen. Some die in less than twenty years. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



1. SHEEP become pregnant after three or four acts of sexual 

 intercourse. If rain falls after the act of intercourse, it 

 must be repeated. The nature of goats is the same. They 

 generally produce two, and sometimes three. Cases have 

 occurred of their producing four. The period of gestation 

 in the sheep and goat is five months ; and in some places, 

 where the weather is warm and fine, and food is abundant, 

 they have young twice a-year. The goat will live eight 

 years. The sheep lives ten years, or generally rather less ; 

 but the leaders of the flock live fifteen years ; for in every 

 flock they select one of the males as a leader, who, when 

 called by the shepherd, places himself at the head of the 

 flock. They are accustomed to this duty even when young. 

 In Ethiopia the sheep live twelve or thirteen years, and the 

 goats ten or eleven. 



2. Both the sheep and goat enjoy sexual intercourse as 

 loDg as they live. Sheep and goats produce twins, if either 

 the pasture is good, or the ram or he-goat, or the ewe 

 belongs to a race producing twins. They produce females 

 or males both from the nature of the water (for there are 

 some waters that cause them to produce males and others 

 females) and from their manner of sexual intercourse ; and 

 if the wind is northward during copulation they produce 

 males ; and if it is southward, females ; and one which na- 

 turally produces females will change its nature and produce 

 males ; so that it is necessary to see that they stand to the 

 north during the act of sexual intercourse. If any are ac- 

 customed to copulate early, and the ram is introduced to 

 them late, they will not endure it. 



3. The lambs are white or black according as the veins 

 beneath the tongue of the ram are white or black ; for the 

 lambs are white if the veins are white, and black if they are 

 black. If they are both black and white, the lambs also are 

 of two colours ; and if red, then the lambs are red. They 



