Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/576

 stand upon an acclivity, whither they compel their females to come in turn. The female that is to he leapt stands with her hind feet in the trench prepared for the purpose, stooping or lowering her haunches somewhat, if need be ; by which the male is enabled, pressing forward upon her in the same way as a bull, to strike her, in technical language, and finish the business of copulation at one assault.

Old and sturdy bucks have a considerable number of does in their herds, as many as ten, and even fifteen ; younger and weaker males have fewer. Keepers say that the doe is sated with two, or at most with three leaps ; once she has conceived she admits the male no more.

The lust of the male cools when he has served his females ; he becomes shyer, and much leaner; he deserts his herd and roams alone, and feeds greedily to repair his wasted strength, nor does he afterwards approach a female for a whole year.

When the male is capable of intercourse the hair on his throat and neck grows black, and the extremity of the prepuce becomes of the same colour, and stinks abominably. The females take the male but rarely, and only in the night or in dusky places, which are, therefore, always chosen by the males for their connubial pleasures. When two stags engage in battle, as frequently happens, the vanquished yields possession of his females to the victor.

EXERCISE THE SIXTY-SEVENTH.

Of the constitution or change that takes place in the uterus of the deer in the course of the month of September.

We now come to the changes that take place in the genital parts of the female after intercourse, and to the conception itself. In the month of September, then, when the female deer first comes in season, her cornua uteri, uterus, or place of concep- tion, grows somewhat more fleshy and thick, softer also, and more tender. In the interior of either cornu, at that part, namely, which looks drawn together by a band, and is turned towards the spine, we observe, protruding in regular succes-