180 STINKING GOAT. [PART II. 



ance of the horns annually shed by stags, that 

 they may be eaten by them and the hinds. I was 

 formerly inclined to treat this as a fiction, but 

 seeing the extraordinary avidity with which in 

 this case the bones were sought after and eaten 

 by the cattle, I was led to imagine that there may 

 be some foundation for it. It is indeed difficult 

 to understand how such hard and intractable sub- 

 stances as a Deer's antlers could be thus disposed 

 of, but there is no saying what a patient and per- 

 severing mumbling of them day after day might 

 not effect. It is well known, besides, that other 

 animals (Toads and Shrimps for instance) are par- 

 ticularly fond of their own exuvice, and, so far as 

 it goes, this fact might be adduced as an argu- 

 ment in support of the theory. 



Of all the stenches which it has been my mis- 

 fortune to meet with, I know none to be compared 

 in point of offensiveness with that emitted by the 

 Common Snake when irritated, as mentioned be- 

 fore, page 174. But judging from the account 

 given me by a friend, of a Goat in his neighbour- 

 hood, I should think that in a match for unsa- 

 vouriness between the snake and the goat, the 

 latter would probably have come off easily victo- 

 rious. The intensity of the stink proceeding from 



