64 The Natural History of Selborne 



know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For it looks as if these 

 creatures would not be suffocated, though both their mouths and 

 nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of the head may be 

 of singular service to beasts of chase, by affording them free respira- 

 tion : and no doubt these additional nostrils are thrown open when 

 they are hard run.* Mr. Ray observed that at Malta the owners 

 slit up the nostrils of such asses as were hard worked : for they, 

 being naturally straight or small, did not admit air sufficient to serve 

 them when they travelled, or laboured, in that hot climate. And 

 we know that grooms, and gentlemen of the turf, think large 

 nostrils necessary, and a perfection, in hunters and running horses. 



Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line, seems to have had 

 some notion that stags have four spiracula : 



"Terpadvpoi plves, irivvpfs nvoif](ri Si'atiXot." 



"Quadrifidae nares, quadruplices ad respirationem canales." 



OPP. CYN. Lib. ii. 1. 181. 



Writers, copying from one another, make Aristotle say that goats 

 breathe at their ears : whereas he asserts just the contrary : "A\K- 



fj,aid)v yap OVK aXrfBri Aeyei, (fxtfJitvoQ avairveiv raq aiyat; KOTO. TO. oira." 



" Alcmaeon does not advance what is true, when he avers that goats 

 breathe through their ears." "History of Animals." Book I. 

 chap. xi. 



* In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and 

 pertinent reply : " I was much surprised to find in the antelope something analogous 

 to what you mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also has a long slit 

 beneath each eye, which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On holding an 

 orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices as of his nostrils, 

 applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smell it through them." 



