Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten BooksAristotle
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Aristotle's History of Animals: In Ten Books
Aristotle
Zoology -- Pre-Linnaean works
1. It has been already observed, that the dispositions of animals
vary in cowardice, mildness, courage, gentleness, intelligence, and
folly. The disposition of sheep, as I have said before, is foolish, and
without sense; they are the most cowardly of all animals, and steal
away into desert places for no purpose, and in winter often escape
from their fold. When overtaken by a snow-storm, they will not get
away, unless the shepherd drives them, but will stay behind and perish,
unless the shepherds carry off the males, when the rest will follow.
2. If a person takes any of the goats by the beard (which is like
hair), all the rest stand by as if infatuated, and look at it. Sheep
will sleep in colder places than goats, for sheep are more quiet, and
are ready to submit themselves to mankind. Goats do not bear the cold
so well as sheep. Shepherds teach sheep to come together when they make
a noise, and if any of them is left behind and does not join the flock
when it thunders, it will cast its young, if pregnant; wherefore, when
a noise is made, they will collect together in their sheds according to
their custom. (Bulls are destroyed by wild beasts, if they wander away
from their herd.) Sheep and goats lie down to rest separately in their
races, and when the sun begins to descend, the shepherds say that the
goats do not lie down with their faces to each other, but they turn
their backs upon each other.
CHAPTER V.
1. Cows pasture in herds, and in companies, and if one of them wanders
to a distance, all the rest follow, so that the herdsmen, if they do
not find her, immediately examine all the herds. Mares in herds, if
one of them happens to die, will bring up her foal among them, and the
whole race of horses appears to have warm natural affections, of which
the following is a proof: the barren mares will take away the foals
from their mothers, and treat them with affection, though they soon die
for want of milk.
CHAPTER VI.
1. Of all wild quadrupeds, the deer appears to be one of the most
prudent in producing its young by the wayside (where wild beasts do
not come, for fear of men); as soon as the young is born, the dam eats
the chorion, and runs to the plant called seselis, which she eats,
and having so done, returns to her kid. She then leads her kid to the
station, to which it may learn to retreat in case of danger; this is
usually a chasm in a rock with a single entrance, which they say that
it stays and defends. When the male gets fat (which usually happens
in the autumn) he does not show himself, but gets out of the way, for
his fat makes him an easy prey. He sheds his horns in difficult and
scarcely accessible places, from whence arises the proverb, "where the
stag sheds its horns," for they are afraid of being seen, as if they
had lost their means of defence. It is said that the left horn never
has been seen, for he conceals it as if it had some medicinal power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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