BOOK VIII. Lxxvi. 200-203 



over-fattening. They are not veiy useful as sires till 

 three years old, nor in old age, and they do not serve 

 for more than four years. They begin when six 

 months old and before they are weaned. Both 

 sexes breed better with the horns removed. The 

 first couphng in the day has no result, but the 

 following and subsequent ones are more effectual. 

 She-goats conceive in November so as to bear kids 

 in March when the bushes are budding — yearhngs 

 sometimes and two-year-olds always, but they are 

 not of much use for breeding unless three years old. 

 They go on bearing for eight years. They are hable 

 to miscarriage from cold. A she-goat cures its eyes 

 when bloodshot by pricking them on a rush, he-goats 

 on a bramble. Mucianus has described a case of 

 this animars cleverness seen by himself — two goats 

 coming in opposite directions met on a very narrow 

 bridge, and as the narrow space did not permit them 

 to turn round and the length did not allow of backing 

 bhndly on the scanty passageway with a rushing 

 torrent flowing threateningly below, one of them lay 

 down and so the other one passed over,treading on top 

 of it. People admire he-goats that are as snub-nosed 

 as possible, with long drooping ears and extremely 

 shaggy flanks. It is a mark of good breeding in she- 

 goats to have two dewlaps hanging down from the 

 neck ; not all have horns, but in those that have there 

 are also indications of their years furnished by the 

 growths of the knobs ; they give more milk when 

 \vithout horns ; according to Archelaus they breathe 

 through the ears, not the nostrils, and are never free 

 from fever: this is perhaps the reason why they are 

 more high-spirited than sheep and hotter in couphng. 

 It is said that goats can see by night as well as they 



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