Further,
kine mount the bulls, follow them about; and keep standing beside
them. The younger females both with horses and oxen are the first to
get in heat; and their sexual appetites are all the keener if the
weather warm and their bodily condition be healthy. Mares, when
clipt of their coat, have the sexual feeling checked, and assume a
downcast drooping appearance. The stallion recognizes by the scent the
mares that form his company, even though they have been together
only a few days before breeding time: if they get mixed up with
other mares, the stallion bites and drives away the interlopers. He
feeds apart, accompanied by his own troop of mares. Each stallion
has assigned to him about thirty mares or even somewhat more; when a
strange stallion approaches, he huddles his mares into a close ring,
runs round them, then advances to the encounter of the newcomer; if
one of the mares make a movement, he bites her and drives her back.
The bull in breeding time begins to graze with the cows, and fights
with other bulls (having hitherto grazed with them), which is termed
by graziers 'herd-spurning'. Often in Epirus a bull disappears for
three months together.
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