340 
PLINTHS ISTATUEAL HISTORY. 
[Book YIII. 
like the sheep. Goats become barren when very fat. There 
is little advantage to be derived from their bringing forth 
before their third year, or after the fourth, when they begin 
to grow old.'^^ They are capable of generating in the seventh 
month, and while they are still sucking. In both sexes those 
that have no horns are considered the most valuable.''^ A 
single coupling in the da}^ is not sufficient ; the second and the 
following ones are more effectual. They conceive in the month 
of JSTovember, so as to bring forth in the month of March, 
when the buds are bursting ; this is sometimes the case with 
them when only one year old, and always with those of the 
second year ; but the produce of those which are three years 
old is the most valuable.'''^ They continue to bring forth for a 
period of eight years. Cold produces abortion. When their 
eyes are surcharged, the female discharges the blood from the 
eye by pricking it with the point of a bulrush, and the male 
with the thorn of a bramble. 
Mutianus relates an instance of the intelligence of this 
animal, of which he himself was an eye-witness. Two goats, 
coming from opposite directions, met on a very narrow bridge, 
which would not admit of either of them turning round, and 
in consequence of its great length, they could not safely go 
backwards, there being no sure footing on account of its 
narrowness, while at the same time an impetuous torrent was 
rapidly rushing beneath ; accordingly, one of the animals lay 
down flat, while the other walked over it. 
Among the males, those are the most esteemed which have 
flat noses and long hanging ears,^^ the shoulders being covered 
Anim. B. vi. c. 19. ^han, Anim. Nat. B. iii. c. 38, says that the goats 
of Egypt sometimes produce five young ones at a birth. — B. 
"■^ Columella, B. vii. c. 6, gives a somewhat different account ; he says, 
" Before its sixth year it is old — so that when five years old, it is not suit- 
able for coupling," — B. 
"^^ According to Columella, ubi supra^ " Because those with horns are 
usually troublesome, from their uncertainty of temper." — B. 
'^^ There has been considerable diiference of opinion respecting the read- 
ing of the original, whether the word utiles," or " inutiles," was the one 
here em.ployed. Hardouin conceives it was the latter, and endeavours to 
reconcile the sense with this reading ; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 538, 539. But, 
notwithstanding his high authority, there is still great doubt on the mat- 
ter.~B. 
fto a Infractis," probably in contradistinction to erect ears. Columella, 
ubi supra, terms them, flaccidis et prsegrandibus auribus " — flaccid eari;, 
and very large." — B. 
