Genesis 30:38,41; (DRB):

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> 38 And he put them in the troughs, where the water was poured out: that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods before their eyes, and in the sight of them might **conceive.**
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> 41 So when the ewes went first to ram, Jacob put the rods in the roughs of water before the eyes of the rams, and of the ewes, that they might **conceive** while they were looking upon them:
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Is the story of conceiving of the rams to be taken literally?