In a general way one may state that of male
animals either none or few herd with their respective females before
breeding time; but they keep separate after reaching maturity, and the
two sexes feed apart. Sows, when they are moved by sexual desire, or
are, as it is called, a-boaring, will attack even human beings.
With bitches the same sexual condition is termed 'getting into
heat'. The sexual organ rises at this time, and there is a moisture
about the parts. Mares drip with a white liquid at this season.
Female animals are subject to menstrual discharges, but never in
such-abundance as is the female of the human species. With ewes and
she-goats there are signs of menstruation in breeding time, just
before the for submitting to the male; after copulation also the signs
are manifest, and then cease for an interval until the period of
parturition arrives; the process then supervenes, and it is by this
supervention that the shepherd knows that such and such an ewe is
about to bring forth. After parturition comes copious menstruation,
not at first much tinged with blood, but deeply dyed with it by and
by. With the cow, the she ass, and the mare, the discharge is more
copious actually, owing to their greater bulk, but proportionally to
the greater bulk it is far less copious.
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