THE COMMON GOAT. 4Q3 



species ; but in stables where several horses are kept, there is 

 no solitude. In Marshall's Rural Economy of Gloucestershire, 

 some cases are related to show that the presence of goats in 

 stables protects the horses from the staggers, which he says 

 is evidently a nervous disorder. Then he suggests that the 

 goat, by exhaling its well-known odour, serves the purpose of 

 a smelling-bottle to the horse, whose nervous system is bene- 

 fitted by the strong scent. But as we know that the goat eats 

 of many plants which would prove injurious, if not poisonous to 

 the horse, it is not improbable that the health of the horse is 

 preserved by the goat picking the baneful plants out of the 

 fodder. To account for its salutary influence, perhaps the three 

 suggestions should be taken together. 



The she-goat goes with young five months, and usually 

 produces two kids. The flesh of the goat, especially of kids, 

 is eaten, and by some esteemed a delicacy j the haunches are 

 frequently salted and dried like bacon ; the suet is much used 

 in Wales for making candles, which are of superior whiteness 

 and excellence to those made from sheep or ox suet 5 the milk, 

 though it yields but little cream, is highly nutritive, and a 

 cheese of peculiar flavour is made from it -, of the longest, 

 thickest, and whitest hair which grows on the buttocks of the 

 he-goat, wigs are made ; the skin, particularly that of the kid, 

 is a valuable material for the manufacture of gloves. 



THE ANGORA GOAT. (Capra Hircus, var. Angorensis). 



This variety, which is peculiar to the province of Angora in 

 Asia Minor, is invariably of a silvery white, with long silky 

 hair, of one sort only. Lieutenant Conolly in a paper on this 

 animal, read before the Asiatic Society, January 18, 1840, 

 stated that when removed from the province, " it is with 

 difficulty kept alive, and always deteriorates so as to be no 



