378 Scientific Intelligence — Zoology. 



is connected with that of the horse and the donioslic animals from 

 the earliest antiquity, and that from the most ancient times the mule 

 has been employed, in the south of Europe, and in the present day, 

 perhaps, even more generally than ever, in drawing or carrying bur- 

 dens. It is a fact generally known, that mules, male and female, 

 are steril, and that we cannot succeed, by copulation, either between 

 themselves or with the original animals, — the horse and ass, — in ren- 

 dering them fruitful. In all countries where mules are reared, the 

 most ignorant individual is aware that these hybrids are infertile, 

 and he considers the facts of fecundation either as fables, or as won- 

 ders which, like extraordinary celestial phenomena, are omens of 

 evil. This opinion is general throughout Italy and Sicily. Cases 

 of fecundation are, in fact, very rare, the greater p^rt doubtful, and 

 still more rarely well established. In Germany, where the mule has 

 been reared only in very restricted localities, no fact of this kind 

 known to me has hitherto occurred. In southern Europe, many in- 

 stances are recorded. Aristotle, Herodotus, Varro, and other ancient 

 writers, have mentioned some instances, and others have been related 

 by authors up to the present time. M. A. Wagner of Munich has 

 recently made a critical examination of these, in the sixth volume of 

 the new edition of Schreber's History of Mammifera. M. de Nanzio 

 reports some cases of this nature from the Italian writers of the six- 

 teenth century, which had escaped the notice of M. A. Wagner, and 

 they always regard them as dismal presages, signals of war, pesti- 

 lence, and famine In extra-European countries, experience has 

 proved only the fact of sterility ; and the theoretical opinion that the 

 fecundation of these hybrids ought to be more frequent in warm 

 countries, is by no means verified in regard to South America, at 

 least if we may rely on the testimony of Azara, an attentive and 

 conscientious observer. 



In the memoir in question, it is unfortunately not mentioned 

 whether the mule was the produce of a male or female ass. In 

 Italy, it is the custom to call both by the name of Mula. It is 

 known, however, that they distinguish the mule, Equus mulus, in 

 Italian Bardotto, which is the produce of a male ass and a mare, 

 from Equus hinnus, in Italian Mulo, which is the produce of a horse 

 and female ass. If we refer to the figure given in the memoir, of the 

 mother and colt, these animals will be found to bear a greater resem- 

 blance to a horse than an ass. On the other hand, MM. Panizza and 

 Capelli, in the report on this subject which they made to the Italian 

 congress at Naples, in 1845, express doubts with regard to the 

 mother, as affording uncertain indications of hybridity in its charac- 

 ter. Yet I am disposed to believe, with these two authors, and 

 after inspecting the documents, that there cannot be the least doubt 

 that we have here an authentic example of the fecundity of a hybrid. 

 The mule in question belonged to a certain Francesco Mastrangelo, 

 of the commune of Anzana, in the province of Capitanato. It was 

 brought forth on the 15th July 1844, a male colt, and caused such 



