THE WILD GOAT, &c. 377 



This difference may proceed from the violent 

 exercife of the animal. The wild he-goat runs 

 as fwiftly as the flag, and leaps more nimbly 

 than the roebuck. His fpleen, therefore, mould 

 refemble that of the fwifteft running animals. 

 Hence this flight difference depends more upon 

 habit than nature ; and it is probable, that, if 

 our domeftic he-goat mould become wild, and 

 were obliged to run and leap like the wild he- 

 goat, his fpleen would ibon aflume the figure 

 moft conformable to this exercife. With re- 

 gard to the difference of his horns, though very 

 confpicuous, they fail not to refemble thofe of 

 the domeftic he-goat more than thofe of any o- 

 ther animal. Thus the wild and common he- 

 goat approach nearer each other, even in the 

 form of their horns, than any other animal ; and, 

 as their refemblance is complete in every other 

 article, we mould conclude, that, notwithstand- 

 ing this flight and folitary difference, they are 

 both animals of the fame fpecies. 



The wild, the chamois, and the domeftic goat 

 muft, therefore, be confidered as the fame fpe- 

 cies, the males of which have undergone great- 

 er variations than the females : I find, at the 

 fame time, in the domeftic kind, fecondary va- 

 rieties, which are the lefs equivocal, becaufe they 

 belong equally to the males and females. We 

 have feen that the goat of Angora*, though very 



different 



* See Vol. III. p. 493. 



