The period of gestation lasts for eight months.
Conception comes on a few days after intercourse; and a number of
hinds can be impregnated by a single male. The hind, as a rule,
bears but one fawn, although instances have been known of her
casting two. Out of dread of wild beasts she casts her young by the
side of the high-road. The young fawn grows with rapidity.
Menstruation occurs at no other time with the hind; it takes place
only after parturition, and the substance is phlegm-like.
The hind leads the fawn to her lair; this is her place of
refuge, a cave with a single inlet, inside which she shelters
herself against attack.
Fabulous stories are told concerning the longevity of the
animal, but the stories have never been verified, and the brevity of
the period of gestation and the rapidity of growth in the fawn would
not lead one to attribute extreme longevity to this creature.
In the mountain called Elaphoeis or Deer Mountain, which is in
Arginussa in Asia Minor-the place, by the way, where Alcibiades was
assassinated-all the hinds have the ear split, so that, if they
stray to a distance, they can be recognized by this mark; and the
embryo actually has the mark while yet in the womb of the mother.
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