l88 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



Mountain goat " is really a goat or an antelope ; 

 while some of the wild goats of Northern India 

 seem to be akin to the sheep tribe, since they 

 have, on all four feet, certain digital pits or 

 glands, which were at one time supposed to char- 

 acterise the genus Ovis. 



Another point about the goat which we find 

 very useful, and which can be accounted for by 

 ancestral habits, is the liberal supply of milk 

 which it gives. Primarily this is owing to the 

 fact that, long before goat's milk was used by 

 man, two or three kids had often to be provided 

 for at the same time ; but to some extent the 

 special utility of the goat as a milch animal is 

 due to the same wild habit as that which gave 

 rise to the peculiar usefulness of the cow. The 

 udder of the ewe is small when compared with 

 that of a nanny-goat, and contains but little milk 

 at any one time. In this the ewe resembles the 

 mare, and the cause is the same in both instances. 

 When in the wild state, both these animals are 

 in the habit of keeping their young ones with 

 them from the first, whereas the cow and the 

 goat put their tender offspring in hiding when 

 I they go to search for food, and only suckle them 

 ' twice or thrice dail)'. The extreme liveliness, 



