56 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



of nature worthy our attention ; and which has not, that 

 I 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 respiration : and 

 no doubt these additional nostrils are thrown open when 

 they are hard run. 1 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 perfectio'n, in hunters and running 

 horses. 



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

 have had some notion that stags have four spiracula : 



" Trrpa6*v/iOi pivts, iricrvpts TTVOITJITI dtavAoi." 



" Quadrifidse 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 : " AX/c/xato)i/ yap OVK dXrjQri Xe-yet, (^ayuevo? 

 avairvetv ray cuya? Kara ra wra." " Alctnceon does not ad- 

 vance what is true, when he avers that goats breathe 

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

 chap. xi. 



work, pp. 73, 74." See also interesting notes on the subject in Harting's edition 

 (pp. 51, 52, notes). [R. B. S.] 



1 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." 

 -[G. W.] 



