492 THE COMMON GOAT. 



Goats will even repose on the ledge of a rock, as though 

 they had selected in bravado the most dangerous couch they 

 could find. 



" High hung in air the hoary goat reclin'd, 

 His streaming beard the sport of every wind." 



(Rogers.} 



When left to forage for themselves, goats generally select for 

 food bitter and slightly astringent plants, as the leaves and 

 buds of spurge, hemlock, birch, privet, and bird-cherry, and 

 the tender tops of furze and heath. Phillips speaks highly of 

 the leaves and young branches of the single-seeded broom 

 as food for goats. Loudon says, that in France, willow leaves, 

 either green or dry, are considered the very best food for 

 them. Theocritus alludes to the eagerness with which they 

 seek the laburnum j and Virgil celebrates that tree for increasing 

 their quantity of milk : but their most favourite food appears 

 to be the leaves of the honeysuckle hence the French call it 

 chevrefeuille, or goat's-leaf. Linnaeus states, that goats will 

 eat of the yew-tree with impunity, though horses and cows 

 refuse to do so. It is also stated, that goats will readily eat 

 manufactured tobacco without suffering from its noxious effects. 

 In wooded neighbourhoods goats do much damage by barking 

 the trees. 



The variety and coarseness of its fare, the hardiness of its 

 nature, and the ease with which it accommodates itself to 

 either an out or indoor life, enable the small-landed cottager 

 to keep it nearly as well as the farmer. The parishes about 

 Mont d'Or, near Lyons, without pasturage or meadows, support 

 nearly twelve thousand goats, kept in stables throughout the 

 year, and yielding a produce of more than a million francs. 



It is a common notion, perhaps a correct one, that horses 

 enjoy better health when a goat is kept in the same stable. 

 Professor Bell thinks that this is owing to the activity and 

 good humour of the goat keeping the horses in better temper 

 and cheerfulness than they would be in if left in solitude. This 

 might seem tenable where a horse had no companion of its own 



