The goat has naturally more sagacity than the sheep and can shift better for itself. He comes to man of himself and is easily familiarized; he is sensible of caresses, and capable of much attachment; he is more strong, light, agile, and less timid than the sheep; he is lively, capricious and lascivious, and it requires much trouble to conduct them into flocks. They are fond of straying into solitude, of climbing steep and rugged places, to stand and even to sleep on the tops of rocks or brinks of precipices. The female seeks the male with eagerness and ardour; she is robust and easily supported, eating almost all kinds of herbs and very few disagreeing with her. The bodily temperament, which in all animals has great influence on the dispositions, does not seem to differ essentially in the goat from that of the sheep. The interior organization of these two species of animals is almost entirely the same; they are fed, grow, and multiply in the same manner, and have the same diseases, except a few to which the goat is not subject. The goat is not, like the sheep, affected with too great a degree of heat, but voluntarily exposes himself to the liveliest rays of the sun, and sleeps therein without suffering a vertigo, or any other inconvenience. He is not alarmed by rains or storms, but appears sensible of the rigours of cold. The exterior movements, as already remarked, depend less on the conformation of the body than on the strength and variety of their sensations, for which reason they are more lively and less regular in the goat than in the sheep. The inconstancy of his disposition is strongly marked by the irregularity of his actions; he walks, stops short, runs, skips, jumps, advances, retreats, shews and conceals himself, or flies off, and all this from mere caprice, and without any other cause than what arises from the whimsicality of his temper; the suppleness of his organs and strength, and nervousness of his frame, are scarcely sufficient to support the petulance and rapidity of his natural motions.
That these animals are naturally fond of men, and that even in uninhabited countries they betray no savage dispositions, the following anecdote is a strong confirmation. In 1698, an English vessel having put into harbour at the island of Bonavista, two negroes went on board, and offered the captain as many goats as he chose to carry away. He expressing a surprise at this offer, the negroes informed him there were only twelve persons on the island, and that the goats multiplied so fast as to become exceedingly troublesome, for instead of being hard to be caught, they followed them about with a degree of obstinacy, like other domestic animals.
The male (fig. 26) goat is capable of engendering at a year, and the female at seven months old; but the fruits of this early coupling are generally weak and defective, and therefore they are commonly restrained until they are eighteen months or two years. The he-goat is handsome, vigorous, and ardent; and one is sufficient to accompany 150 females for two or three months; but this ardour, which soon consumes him, does not last more than three or four years, and by the age of five or six, he becomes aged and enervated. Therefore, in choosing a male for propagation, he should be large, handsome, and about two years old; his neck should be short and thick, his head light, his ears hanging down, his thighs thick, his legs firm, his hair black, thick and soft, his beard long and bushy. The choice of the female (fig. 27) is of less importance, only observing that those with large bodies, thick thighs, who walk light, have large udders, and soft bushy hair, are the most preferable. They are usually in season in September, October, and November, though they will couple and bring forth at all times. They retain, however, much surer in autumn; and the months of October and November are preferred, because the grass will be young and tender when the kids begin to eat. They go about five months with young and bring forth at the beginning of the sixth; they suckle their young a month or five weeks; so that about six and twenty weeks may be reckoned from the time of their coupling to the kids first beginning to feed on pasture.
Engraved for Barr’s Buffon
Fig. 27 She Goat
Fig. 26 He Goat