THE CALF. 277 



as have bred in confinement, is some twenty months. 

 In about three months after her acquaintance 

 with the male, the first symptoms of pregnancy 

 are supposed to appear. She never brings forth 

 more than one at a birth, and that at considerable 

 intervals. 



The young animal, when first born, is not much 

 larger than an ordinary calf, but its limbs are more 

 bulky and rounded. Its skin, which is of a pink 

 colour, smooth and soft to the touch, bears no 

 resemblance to the rough, wrinkled, bark-like ex- 

 terior that it assumes in after-life. 



The calf begins to nibble and suck at the teats 

 (of which there are two, placed a little behind the 

 fore-legs) soon after birth, not, however, with its 

 proboscis, as, until lately, was generally believed, 

 but -with the mouth. Whilst sucking, the calf 

 presses the breast with its tiny trunk, which, by 

 natural instinct, it knows will make the milk flow 

 more readily into the mouth ; and this circumstance, 

 no doubt, has given rise to the fable in question ; 

 one, strange to say, adopted by Butfon and other 

 great authorities. 



The mother, it should be remarked, never lies 

 down to give her young suck ; hence it often 

 happens that, when the dam is tall, she is obliged 

 to bend her body towards the calf, to enable it to 

 reach the nipple with its mouth ; and so sensible 

 are the attendants of this, that it is a common prac- 

 tice with them to raise a small mound of earth, six 

 to eight inches high, for the young one to stand on, 

 and thus save the mother the trouble of bending 



