174 THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. [B. VI. 



its mouth, and not with its proboscis. It can walk and see 

 as soon as it is born. 



3. Wild swine copulate at the beginning of winter. They 

 produce their young in the spring. For this purpose the 

 female gets away into inaccessible and precipitous places, 

 where there are caves and plenty of shade. The males re- 

 main with the females for thirty days. The number of pigs 

 and the period of gestation are the same as in the domesti- 

 cated herd, and their voices are much alike : the female, 

 however, grunts more and the male less. The castration of 

 the male makes them larger and more fierce, as Homer 

 writes. " He brought up a castrated wild boar, which was not 

 like a beast fed upon food, but resembled a woody moun- 

 tain peak." Castration takes place from a disease like a 

 swelling in the testicles, which they rub against the trees 

 and so destroy them. 



CHAPTER XXYI. 



1. THE female deer usually copulates, as I observed before, 

 from allurement ; for she cannot endure the male on account 

 of the hardness of the penis. Some, however, endure copu- 

 lation as sheep do. "When sexual desire is felt, they lie 

 down beside each other. The male is changeable in his dis- 

 position, and does not unite himself to a single female, but 

 in a short time leaves one for another. The season for 

 sexual intercourse is in August and September, after Arctu- 

 rus. The period of gestation is eight months. The female 

 becomes pregnant in a few days, and frequently in one day. 



2. She generally produces one fawn, though some have 

 been known to bear twins. She produces her young by the 

 road side, for fear of wild beasts. The growth of the fawns 

 is rapid. The female has no purification at other times, but 

 after parturition her cleansing is sanguineous. The female 

 usually conducts her fawn to some accustomed place, which 

 serves them for a refuge. It is usually an opening in a 

 rock, with but one entrance, where they can defend them- 

 selves against those who would attack them. 



3. There are fables about their long life. They do not, 

 however, appear to be worthy of credit ; and the period of 

 gestation and growth of the young does not agree with the 

 habits of long-lived animals. In the mountain called Eter 



