MULE RAISING. 181 



kept for mule breeding exclusively. This would make it appear tliat the male 

 exerts an influence upon the female that is not confined to her immediate 

 progeny, but is transmitted through her to her future offspring. This prin- 

 ciple is admitted as established by some physiologists, and the following inci- 

 dent is often cited in proof of the position : A mare that had been covered by 

 a quagga, or zebra, and produced a striped mule from that cross, afterward had 

 colts that were begotten by three different stallions ; each of these horse foals 

 was striped, and resembled the quagga in other respects. The same is said to 

 be the result after breeding a mare to the jackass. The authority for the above 

 is not given, but it is generally admitted to be correct. ]\Ir. Lyell tells us that 

 it may be laid down as a general rule, admitting of very few exceptions among 

 quadrupeds, that the hybrid progeny is sterile ; and there seems to be no well- 

 authenticated examples of the continuance of the mule race beyond one gen- 

 eration. The principal number of observations and experiments relate to the 

 mixed offspring of the horse and ass, and in this case it is well established that 

 the he mule can generate, and that the she mule can produce. Such cases 

 occur in Spain and Italy, and much more frequently in the West Indies and 

 in New Holland ; but the mules have never bred in cold climates, ssldom in 

 warm regions, and still more rarely in temperate countries. 



We learn from Wilson's Rural Encyclopedia that no impediment to propa- 

 gation has been observed by anatomists or physiologists; and the incapacity of 

 these creatures, in all ordinary circumstances, to become parents, must arise 

 from some subtle property of the vital power, or some anomalous working of 

 the organic functions, or some derangement in the peculiar or proper forces of a 

 species consequent upon the monstrousness of their origin. Every mule is a 

 compound of two species, and seems to be to a certain extent a malformation 

 of each, and a type of neither ; and while unable to reproduce the specific form 

 of his dam or of his sire, he is wanting in a sufficient specific character of his 

 own to be the proper subject of reproduction. Nor do mules exhibit a true 

 blending of the specific properties of their parents ; but as regards the most im- 

 portant properties, such as size, form, constitution, temper, and habits, they 

 generally possess a closer resemblance to their dam than to their sire. Buffon 

 says, in the case both of mules and hinnies, "that they retain more of the dam 

 than of the sire, not only in magnitude, but in the figure of the body ; whereas 

 in the form of the head, limbs, and tail they bear a greater resemblance to the 

 sire." The same naturalist infers, from various experiments respecting cross- 

 breeds between the he goat and ewe, the dog and the wolf, the Canary bird 

 and the goldfinch, that the male transmits his sex to the greatest number, 

 and that the preponderance of males over females exceeds that which prevails 

 where the parents are of the same species. Any two species of the equine 

 genus will hybridize with each other, but some do so with facility and willing- 

 ness, and others with difficulty and repugnance. Mules have been generated 

 between the horse and the quagga. They are readily produced between the 

 horse and the ass, as is well known ; but they are very reluctantly and sparingly 

 produced betAveen the ass and the quagga. In an experiment related by Pen^ 

 nant, a he ass and a she zebra were for some time unsuccessfully kept together 

 with a view of their hybridizing ; but after the ass was taken aside and painted 

 in such a manner as to resemble a zebra, and conducted back to his companion, 

 tliey united and produced a mule ; another ass and zebra mule was produced 

 at Turin, but it died as soon as it was born ; and another, a well-formed female 

 mule, was produced in a menagerie at Paris, from a Spanish ass of the largest 

 size, and a female zebra, and became larger than its dam, acquiring a form some- 

 what similar to that of its sire, and was remarkable for docility. In another 

 experiment a female zebra was covered by a stallion and became pregnant, but 

 died in the eighth month of her gestation, and Avhen her body was opened the 

 foeius was found to be a male without hair, and marked on the head with black 



