CYNEGETICA, II. 187-206 



But there is rough passion among Stags and much 

 venery," and a heart that burns for mating all the day, 

 even as have the lustful fighting cocks * and all the 

 feathered birds of flowery plumage. They have 

 hidden ^^ithin their loins under the very belly twin 

 ducts. If one cut these out, straightway he makes 

 the animal effeminate, and from its head falls away 

 all the daedal many-branched gro-wth of sharp horns. "^ 

 But the manner of their mating '^ is not after the 

 custom of other beasts, but strange are the passions 

 that possess them. Not standing in the pastoral 

 valleys nor lying on the flower}' grass upon the 

 ground do the Stags consort with the female deer, 

 but the hind runs and the Stag running with swift 

 feet overtakes her and seizes the fugitive and em- 

 braces her for his bride. But not even so does he 

 persuade her. Carrying her mate upon her back 

 she flees ^ith all her might, ha\ing a heart altogether 

 implacable. But he following swiftly on two feet 

 forgoes not his desire but accomplishes the rites of 

 union. Howbeit, when afterward ^^^th the circhng 

 of the moons the female brings forth her young, she 



castratis cornua nee nascuntur ; Solin. xix. 1+. "The horns 

 of the Ruminants are frequently a sefondary sexual character ; 

 this is especially the case with the Deer. '. . . That they are 

 assoc-iated with the reprotluctive function is shown by their 

 being shed after the period of rut, the destruction of the 

 velvet at that period, and also by the effect upon the horns 

 which any injury to the reproductive glands produces," 

 Camb. N. H. x. Mammalia, p. 201. 



^ A. 540 a 5 oiht toi'-s dppevas fXd^oi'S ot OriXeiai vxofidvovffti' 

 €1 fiT] 6\iydKis, . . . 8ia ttjv toO aiSoiov {cf. 500 b 23) avyroviai', 

 aXX i'lrdyoirra to. tf^Xeo d^x'"''''^'- '^V" yov^v Kai yap exi t(ov 

 €Xd(pu>i> wTTTai TOVTO (rvfji^oivov, Tujv ye Tiffaadv ; Plin. x. 174 

 Taurorura cervorumque feminae vim non tolerant: ea de 

 causa ingrediuntur in conceptu. 



73 



