White — On Hybridism. 203 



the ignorant, so far as my experience goes, is likely to cause 

 any such lusus natures to be put to death. 



Mr. S. C. Cronwright Schreiner, in " The Angora Goat," 

 published at the instance of the South African Goat-breeders' 

 Society in 1898, says. " Crossing between the goat and sheep is 

 not unknown in Cape Colony. I have seen four animals re- 

 presented as being the hybrid progeny of such a cross — three 

 exhibited at Port Elizabeth shows and one at the Queenstown 

 show — all, I believe, purporting to be crosses between the 

 Angora goat and the Cape (Africander) sheep. That exhibited 

 at Queenstown was said to be such a cross. I examined it 

 closely, and am quite satisfied it was a hybrid between an 

 Angora and a sheep, probably an Africander sheep. It was a 

 well-grown animal, about six or eight months old, not having 

 yet cut its teeth " — {i.e., its two middle teeth of the mature 

 mouth, indicating the age of eighteen months or thereabout, 

 as is the case in both sheep and goats) — "and was fat 

 and healthy. Looked at not too critically from a few yards 

 distance it would be mistaken for a sheep, owing mainly to the 

 shape of the horns, which were curled close to the skull, im- 

 parting to the head a sheep-like appearance, and to the fleece,, 

 which had an even 'top,' and showed no ringlets. When ex- 

 amined closely, however, the face, though covered with soft 

 down and quiet in expression, more resembled a goat's, and 

 the compact fleece when opened was found to be mohair, 

 peculiar looking and crimped somewhat like wool, but un- 

 doubtedly mohair, about 2 in. in length — the inch length 

 nearest the skin being bright lustrous-yellow, the colour due, 

 no doubt, to the exudation of some natural secretion of the 

 skin. The animal's legs were not woolled." 



This description of the Angora-Africander sheep hybrid 

 would at first sight seem to be clear and sufficient, but when 

 we remember that the Angora and Africander sheep carry no 

 wool or down on the face, and that the latter has no wool on 

 any part of its body, the question arises, From which parent 

 is the face covered with soft down inherited? Somewhat of 

 that style of face might be found among high-class merinos, 

 but all or most other breeds of sheep have the face covered in 

 short hairs, excluding the tuft or topknot between the ears, 

 which in certain breeds is a fair wool, and in others is 

 entirely wanting. Possibly Mr. Schreiner wrote the descrip- 

 tion of this animal from memory, some time after seeing it. 



Of the genus Bos, or oxen, nearly all the different species 

 are mutually fertile with each other and inter se, excepting 

 the Indian buffalo and the European bison, sometimes called 

 the "Aurochs." This latter animal, I believe, has never been 

 successfully tamed or subdued by man. A cross between the 

 Indian zebu, or humped ox, and our domestic oxen is said to 



