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See also:GOAT (a See also:common Teut. word; O. Eng. gat, Goth. gaits, Mod. Ger. Geiss, cognate with See also:Lat. haedus, a kid)
, properly the name of the well-known domesticated See also:European ruminant (Capra hircus), which has for all See also:time been regarded as the See also:emblem of everything that is evil, in contradistinction to the See also:sheep, which is the See also:symbol of excellence and purity
.
Although the more typical goats are markedly distinct from sheep, there is, both as regards See also:wild and domesticated forms, an almost See also:complete gradation from goats to sheep, so that it is exceedingly difficult to define either See also:group
.
The position of the genus Capra (to all the members of which, as well as some allied See also:species, the name " See also:goat " in its wider sense is applicable) in the See also:family See also:Bovidae is indicated in the See also:article BOVIDAE, and some of the distinctions between goats and sheep are mentioned in the article SHEEP
.
Here then it will suffice to mention that goats are characterized by the strong and offensive odour of the See also:males, which are furnished with a See also:beard on the See also:chin; while as a See also:general See also:rule glands are See also:present between the See also:middle toes of the fore feet only
.
Goats, in the wild See also:state, are an exclusively old-See also:world group, of which the more typical forms are confined to See also:Europe and See also:south-western and central See also:Asia, although there are two outlying species in See also:northern See also:Africa The wild goat, or pasang, is represented in Europe in the See also:Cyclades and See also:Crete by rather small races
.
1,
183o, written 16o8–161o) ; P
.
Baldaeus, in See also:Churchill's Voyages,
vol
.
3 (See also:London, 1732) ; J
.
Fryer, A New See also:Account of See also:East See also:India
and See also:Persia (London, 1698) ; A. de Mandelslo, Voyages (London,
1669) ; See also:Les Voyages de M. de Thevenot aux lades Orientales (Amster-See also:dam, 1799), and A
.
See also: G . |
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