124 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

of subsistence, and it feeds on many plants which to other
ruminants are distasteful and even deleterious; thus hem-
lock, henbane, and Digitalis are eaten by it with impunity,
and even the acrid Euphorbia is not rejected.”

The milk of the goat is very sweet and nutritious.
Formerly the skin was considered a most useful article of
clothing, and it is still manufactured into Turkey and Mo-
rocco leather; that of the kid forms the softest and most
suitable material for gloves and other articles. The usual
colour of the domestic goat is black and white, or a pale
reddish-brown.

The common goat inhabits most parts of the world, and
will endure all climates, from Norway to the hottest parts
of Africa and ‘India. The Cashmere goat produces a fine
wool close to the skin, which is made into the celebrated
and costly shawls for which the Asiatics have so long been
famous; and from the hair of the Angora goat the finest
camlets are manufactured. A race found in Upper Egypt
has the hair very short, the forehead very round, and the
lower jaw projecting beyond the upper; those of Guinea
are very small, and have the horns turned back. The Syrian
goat, of which there are several varieties, is remarkable for
the great length of its ears, which are said in some cases to