478 ASSES AND MULES 



knee-joint, which is very large. His feet are much bigger 

 and less narrow at the heels than the feet of other 

 donkeys, and his pasterns short. The body is heavy, the 

 chest broad, the shoulders upright, the back straight, the 

 neck of medium length, broad, thick, and strong, the lips 

 pendulous and the ears enormous, so that in some animals 

 they bend over and hang forward like the lop ears of certain 

 breeds of swine. The whole body is covered with long and 

 shaggy hair, including frequently a long mane and forelock. 

 A large head and ears, and an unkempt coat, are points of 

 excellence among home breeders. The females are 13 to 14 

 hands, and the males run up to 15 hands. The Poitou Jack 

 (Plate CXXXIII.) mated with mares of our three heavy 

 working breeds of horses, would produce the finest draught 

 animals in the world, and for many descriptions of work might 

 with great advantage be bred and used in this country. 

 The 1st prize jack of this breed at the Paris Exhibition in 

 1906 sold for over ^500. Mule breeding is one of the 

 most remunerative of local industries in France. 



The mule, properly so named, is the produce of a cross 

 between a jack-donkey and a mare, while the animal pro- 

 duced by a stallion and female ass is a "hinny." The latter 

 is rarely seen, and is'inferior in value and usually in size to 

 the mule, which is a most valuable beast of burden in hilly 

 regions or in hot countries, being more sure-footed and 

 possessing greater powers of endurance than the horse, more 

 especially when both have to live on poor food. In external 

 form the mule most strongly resembles the ass ; but when 

 bred from a heavy draught mare, it combines with this some- 

 thing of the superior stature and massiveness of the mother. 



The mule has not been much used in this country, except 

 for a time in tramway cars in London, Glasgow, and a few 

 other populous centres, subsequent to the sale of pack mules 

 which occurred after the close of the last Egyptian campaign. 

 The Secretary and Manager of the Glasgow Tramway and 

 Omnibus Company wrote, in September 1892, "We have 

 now no mules, having allowed them to run out " ; no doubt 

 because there exists no means of procuring them in the open 

 market in this country. Mules have some advantage over 

 horses in tramway work: (i) they are not particular as to 

 the quality of their food, and they consume less by about 



