196 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



duced by many generations of careful breeding. 

 Tlius the ears of one kind are so enormously 

 developed as to be 19 inches in length and 4^ 

 inches in breadth. Others have an extra pair of 

 horns ; and it is stated by one French writer that 

 in Nubia they have actually developed a breed 

 which has no goat-like odour. It seems likely 

 that the milking qualities of the goat would be 

 appreciated by primitive people, who would be 

 quite unable to turn the wool of the sheep to 

 practical account ; and since sheep, when re- 

 moved from their mountain home, require very 

 much more care than goats, I should be inclined 

 to give the latter the prior place in the history of 

 domestication. 



Attention has been drawn to the love of 

 thistles displayed by donkeys, and to the hint 

 it orives us of their desert origin. The g-oat has 

 some peculiarities of taste of an equally extra- 

 ordinary character, which may be explained by 

 an examination of the kind of vegetation which 

 thrives in his ancestral habitat. A goat will 

 cheerfully munch up strong cavendish tobacco, 

 cigar-ends, wormwood, red chillies, or almost any 

 vegetable substance the pungency or nauseous- 

 ness of which deters other animals. Now we 



