In Lycia goats
are shorn for their fleece, just as sheep are in all other
countries. In Libya the long-horned ram is born with horns, and not
the ram only, as Homer' words it, but the ewe as well; in Pontus, on
the confines of Scythia, the ram is without horns.
In Egypt animals, as a rule, are larger than their congeners
in Greece, as the cow and the sheep; but some are less, as the dog,
the wolf, the hare, the fox, the raven, and the hawk; others are of
pretty much the same size, as the crow and the goat. The difference,
where it exists, is attributed to the food, as being abundant in one
case and insufficient in another, for instance for the wolf and the
hawk; for provision is scanty for the carnivorous animals, small birds
being scarce; food is scanty also for the hare and for all frugivorous
animals, because neither the nuts nor the fruit last long.
In many places the climate will account for peculiarities;
thus in Illyria, Thrace, and Epirus the ass is small, and in Gaul
and in Scythia the ass is not found at all owing to the coldness of
the climate of these countries. In Arabia the lizard is more than a
cubit in length, and the mouse is much larger than our field-mouse,
with its hind-legs a span long and its front legs the length of the
first finger-joint.
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