The milk that first presents itself becomes
as hard as stone when it clots; this result ensues unless it be
previously diluted with water. Oxen younger than a year old do not
copulate unless under circumstances of an unnatural and portentous
kind: instances have been recorded of copulation in both sexes at
the age of four months. Kine in general begin to submit to the male
about the month of Thargelion or of Scirophorion; some, however, are
capable of conception right on to the autumn. When kine in large
numbers receive the bull and conceive, it is looked upon as prognostic
of rain and stormy weather. Kine herd together like mares, but in
lesser degree.
22
In the case of horses, the stallion and the mare are first
fitted for breeding purposes when two years old. Instances, however,
of such early maturity are rare, and their young are exceptionally
small and weak; the ordinary age for sexual maturity is three years,
and from that age to twenty the two sexes go on improving in the
quality of their offspring. The mare carries her foal for eleven
months, and casts it in the twelfth. It is not a fixed number of
days that the stallion takes to impregnate the mare; it may be one,
two, three, or more.
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