THE GOAT. 205 



be well used to such an accident, seldom have the 

 sense to make the half turn of their corkscrew- 

 like weapons which would suffice to set both 

 prisoners of war at liberty. Instances have been 

 known of sheep having perished, head to head, 

 because they had not sufficient wit — or possibly 

 too much obstinacy — to detach themselves from 

 one another. 



Now the horns of the goat are never curled so 

 as to make it dangerous for him to pass through 

 tangled briers or closely set underwood. He has 

 merely to lift his nose and his horns lie back on 

 each side of his spine or curve down his shoulders 

 and serve as a protection for his body when he 

 is forcing his way among the thorny scrub of the 

 hillside. 



It has been frequently asserted by hunters that 

 the ibex and other wild goats, when hard pressed, 

 will throw themselves over precipices and alight 

 on their horns. Mr Hutton (quoted by Professor 

 Lloyd Morgan) says that he has seen captive wild 

 goats use their horns for this purpose. There is 

 not the peculiar anatomical reason for accepting 

 such a story which we find in the skull and cervi- 

 cal vertebrae of the sheep. Goats do not fight by 

 hurlino- themselves against one another, head to 



