In
point of fact, the mare appears to be singularly prone by nature to
maternal fondness; in proof whereof a barren mare will steal the
foal from its dam, will tend it with all the solicitude of a mother,
but, as it will be unprovided with mother's milk, its solicitude
will prove fatal to its charge.
5
Among wild quadrupeds the hind appears to be pre-eminently
intelligent; for example, in its habit of bringing forth its young
on the sides of public roads, where the fear of man forbids the
approach of wild animals. Again, after parturition, it first
swallows the afterbirth, then goes in quest of the seseli shrub, and
after eating of it returns to its young. The mother takes its young
betimes to her lair, so leading it to know its place of refuge in time
of danger; this lair is a precipitous rock, with only one approach,
and there it is said to hold its own against all comers. The male when
it gets fat, which it does in a high degree in autumn, disappears,
abandoning its usual resorts, apparently under an idea that its
fatness facilitates its capture. They shed their horns in places
difficult of access or discovery, whence the proverbial expression
of 'the place where the stag sheds his horns'; the fact being that, as
having parted with their weapons, they take care not to be seen.
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