166 THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. [B. VT. 



are more ready for sexual intercourse if they drink salt 

 water ; so that they should be supplied with salted water 

 both before and after parturition, and again in the spring. 

 The herdsmen do not constitute any leader among the flocks 

 of goats, because it is not their nature to be stationary, but 

 they are active and ready to move from place to place. If 

 the older sheep prepare for sexual intercourse at the proper 

 time, the shepherds consider it a sign of a good year for the 

 sheep ; if the younger ones are ready first, it will be a bad 

 sheep year. 



CHAPTER XX. 



1. THERE are many kinds of dogs. The Lacedemonian dogs, 

 both male and female, begin to have sexual intercourse at 

 eight months old. Some also lift their leg to make water 

 about this period. The bitch becomes pregnant with a single 

 act of coition ; this is particularly evident in those -which per- 

 form the act in secret, for they become pregnant when once 

 united. The period of gestation in the Lacedemonian bitch 

 is the sixth part of a year, that is sixty days, or it may be one, 

 two, or three days more or less. The puppies when they 

 are born are blind for twelve days. The bitch is ready for 

 sexual intercourse six months after she has produced her 

 young, and not sooner. In some the period of gestation 

 is the fifth part of a year, this is seventy-two days. The 

 puppies of such bitches are blind for fourteen days. Others 

 are pregnant the fourth part of a year, that is three whole 

 months ; their puppies are blind seventeen days. The fe- 

 male appears to desire the male for the same length of time. 

 2. The catamenia in bitches last for seven days, and at 

 the same time the genital organs are swollen with heat ; 

 during this period they will not endure coition, but during 

 the seven days which follow, for they all appear usually to 

 desire the male for fourteen days. This affection continues 

 in some for sixteen days. The purification from parturition 

 takes place at the birth of the young ones ; it is thick 

 and phlegmatic, and the quantity produced in partu- 

 rition is small in proportion to the size of the body/ 

 Bitches generally have milk five days before parturition ; in 



1 (Or perhaps) after parturition the discharge becomes thinner in 

 consistence. 



