372 COMMON GOAT. 



to whom their milk affords very good nourish- 

 ment. 



After this excellent description of the general 

 manners of the Goat, the Count de Buffon affords 

 a curious example either of philosophical negli- 

 gence, or of singular credulity ; since he gravely 

 observes, that this animal is subject, like the cow ! 

 to be sucked by the Viper, and still more by the 

 bird called the Goatsucker!!! It is astonishing 

 that Mons. Sonnini, in his edition of the Count's 

 Natural History, has not taken care to contradict 

 this absurdity. He has, however, given us a cu- 

 rious instance of the readiness with which the 

 Goat permits itself to be sucked by animals of a 

 different kind, and far larger than itself; since 

 he assures us, that he saw, in the year 1780, a 

 foal, which had lost it mother, thus nourished by 

 a Goat, which, during the process, was placed on 

 a barrel, in order that the foal might suck with 

 greater convenience. The foal followed its nurse 

 to pasture, as it would have done its parent, and 

 was attended with the greatest care by the Goat, 

 which always called it back by her bleatings, 

 when it wandered to any distance from her. 



The colour of the domestic Goat is various, 

 being either black, brown, white, or spotted. Mr. 

 Pennant informs us, that those of Wales are com- 

 monly white, and arc far superior in si/e, strength, 

 and fineness of hair, to those of other moun- 

 tainous countries ; the Goats of France, and the 

 Alps, being generally short-haired, reddish, and 



