THE SO-CALLED "NATIVE GOAT" 



Mexico, California, and the adjacent regions were being 

 explored and settled by the Spanish, a race of people 

 who in their native home, with its mountainous regions 



1 



Fig. 2. — Doe from the Navajo Indian reservation, showing the 8ur\'ival of milk type 

 among the goats of the Southwest. (Courtesy of C. B. Allaire. San Antonio. N. M.) 

 There is a current belief that among the goats of the Southwest there is found a strain 

 that originates in the Island of Malta. There was actually one importation of 

 Maltese goats made to this country, but owing to the appearance of Malta fever 

 among them, these animals were destroyed as a precautionary measure. However, 

 a good many goats in this region show in some deeree the drooping ears and the 

 pendulous udder that are said to be characteristic of Maltese goats. These points 

 appear in the animal pictured above. Doubtless the stock imported from Spain 

 during the centuries of the Spanish settlements did include some infiltration of Mal- 

 tese blood, which still appears in occasional instances, although the goats of the 

 Southwest are prevaihngly Alpine in type. 



