170 THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. [3. VI. 



have shed them all in the last year. These circumstances 

 are rare, so that it usually happens that the horse is most 

 fit for sexual intercourse at four years and a half old. The 

 older horses are more full of semen, both the males and the 

 females, than younger ones. Horses will copulate both with 

 their dams and with their offspring ; and it is thought to be 

 a sign that the herd is complete, when they copulate with 

 their offspring. The Scythians ride upon their pregnant 

 mares when the embryo begins to turn in the uterus, and 

 say that it renders parturition more easy. All other quad- 

 rupeds lie down in the act of parturition ; wherefore their 

 young are always produced lying on their side ; but when 

 the mare feels that the time for parturition is approaching, 

 she stands upright to part with her colt. 



3. Horses generally live eighteen or twenty years ; some 

 live twenty -five or thirty years ; but if they are carefully 

 treated, their life may be extended to fifty years. Thirty 

 years, however, is a very long life for the male, and twenty- 

 five for the female. Some have been known to live forty 

 years. Males live a shorter time than females, on account 

 of the act of sexual intercourse ; and those that are brought 

 up separately longer than those which live in herds. Fe- 

 males attain their proper length and height in five years ; 

 the males in six. In six more years the fulness of body is 

 acquired, which continues till they are twenty years old. 

 The females attain perfection more rapidly than the males ; 

 but in the uterus the males are the more rapidly developed. 

 This is also the case in the human subject. This also takes 

 place in those animals which produce several at a birth. 



4. They say that the mule sucks for six months, but the 

 mare will not permit it to come afterwards, because it 

 drags and hurts her. The horse sucks for a longer time. 

 The horse and the mule attain perfection after casting 

 their teeth ; and when* they have cast them all, it is not 

 easy to know their age. "Wherefore they say that, before 

 casting its teeth, the horse has its mark, which it has not 

 afterwards. After the teeth have been changed, the age 

 is usually ascertained by the canine tooth ; for that in 

 riding horses is generally worn down, for the bridle rubs 

 against it. In horses which have not been ridden, it is large 

 and not worn. In young horses it is small and sharp. 



