1887] Hornless Ruminants. 741 
confined to Syria, but extended, by the countries of the Euphrates, 
into Arabia, and, with some slight change of characters, into 
Upper Egypt and Nubia. This kind of goat was known to the 
ancients, who mention it by the name of the Syrian, and some- 
times by the Damascus goat, It is generally without horns. In 
Nepaul a beautiful goat is domesticated, which so much resem- 
bles the Syrian that both appear to be derived from a common 
stock. 
Figuier states that of the common goat (C. hircus) “ there is 
a subvariety without horns,” and that the Syrian goat, pendulous- 
eared, is more frequently without horns than the common goat. 
The writer of the article on Goats in the“ Encyclopædia Brit- 
annica” (ninth edition), noticing the Maltese hornless variety, re- 
marks, “but the absence of these appendages is likely a freak 
of nature and not the peculiar character of a particular species.” 
Mr. Henry Stephen Holmes Pegler, Secretary of the British 
Goat Society, in his well-known work, “ The Book of the Goat” 
(1885), says, — 
orns which may be relied on to reproduce that peculiarity with- 
out deviation. Iam inclined to share the opinion of Professor 
Simonds, late Principal of the Royal Veterinary College, that 
there is no hornless race, but that the absence of the corneous 
ages is purely a freak of nature apparent in all breeds, 
ou i : 
S election, and breeding always from polled goats, a strain 
could be established which would produce, with tolerable cer- 
T -$ goat without horns appears to have a rather ancient origin, 
: wen modifications which characterize it are deeply rooted. 
st now in other respects but little concerning this ag? 
ka whose most esteemed quality consists in the value of 
a , which possesses but little odor, and is very good eating, 
y 
