92 History of Nature. [BOOK VIII. 



shaggy Hair about their Shoulders. But the Mark to know 

 the noblest Females is, that they have two Folds hanging down 

 along their Body on either Side from the Neck. All have 

 not Horns ; but in those which are horned, a Man may know 

 their Age by the Increase of the Prominences : and the un- 

 horned she-Goats are more abundant in Milk. Arclielaus 

 writeth, that they breathe through the Ears, 1 and not at the 

 Nostrils ; and also that they are never without a Fever. And 

 this, perhaps, is the Cause that they have hotter Breath 

 than Sheep, and more eager in their Love. They say, also, 

 that they see by Night as well as by Day ; and therefore 

 they who in the Evening are able to see nothing, which 

 Disease we call Nyctalipia, recover their perfect Sight again 

 by eating the Liver of Goats. 2 In Cilicia and about the 

 Syrtes, People clothe themselves with the Goat's Hair, for 

 there they shear them. It is said that Goats, toward the 

 Sun-setting, cannot in their Pasture see directly one ano- 

 ther, but by turning Tail to Tail ; but at other Hours of the 

 Day they keep towards each other, among their Fellows. 

 They have all of them a Tuft of Hair under their Chin, 

 which they call Aruncus. If any one take one of them by 

 this Beard and draw it out of the Flock, all the rest will 

 stand gazing at it, as if they were astonished ; and so they 

 will do if any one of them chance to eat a certain Herb. 3 

 Their Bite is destructive to Trees. They make the Olive- 

 Tree barren by licking it, for which Cause they are not 

 sacrificed to Minerva. 



1 The ancient Greeks and Romans were of opinion that goats breathed 

 through their ears; and even some modern naturalists entertain the 

 idea that the tear-pits found in the stag and fallow-deer are furnished to 

 enable them to breathe more freely during their long and rapid flights. 

 These opinions may be accounted for in some measure by the fact that 

 certain species of antelope have a pit or fold of skin nearly half an inch in 

 depth, opening externally by a small aperture immediately behind each 

 ear, the use of which is not clearly understood. Wern. Club. 



2 Lib. xxviii. 11. 



3 This herb is said to be Eryngium. See Theoph. in Fragmento de 

 Animalibus. Wern. Club. 



