480 ZEBRULES 



The mule is barren, although mating of both sexes is not 

 uncommon. In recognition of this well-authenticated fact 

 the Arabs have a saying that " when the mule breeds, men 

 will become women and women men." Many authentic cases 

 are on record of female mules giving a copious supply of 

 milk to foals that have adopted them as foster mothers. 



It is a mistaken belief that the mule is more feeble as a 

 young foal than the pure-blooded foal of the mare or of 

 the she-ass, unless it be deprived of mother's first milk, as 

 among the ignorant peasantry of Poitou, who mistakingly con- 

 sider it to be poisonous. On the contrary, it is specially 

 energetic and active immediately after birth, rising and 

 sucking without aid within a very few minutes. It is, how- 

 ever, longer in reaching maturity, but it lives longer, and 

 may be worked for a longer period, than the horse. The 

 female mule meets a more ready sale than the male, and she 

 comes more quickly to maturity. A mare carries a mule 

 foal for 333 days, and the height of the mule usually follows 

 that of the mother, and not infrequently exceeds it. There 

 is frequently much difficulty in getting both mares and jacks 

 to mate, and when mated they do not breed so certainly as 

 animals belonging to one species. These are discourage- 

 ments to mule-breeding being introduced in this country. 

 The want of the technical knowledge necessary to the 

 successful management of the enterprise, as well as its being 

 contrary to the sentiment of the country, also militates 

 against it. 



Zebrules or Zebroids have in recent years excited much 

 public interest, on account of the success of the extensive 

 experiments conducted between 1896 and 1904 by Professor 

 Cossar Ewart at Penicuik, Midlothian, about 15 miles from 

 Edinburgh. There " Matopa," 12.2 hands, a Burchell zebra 

 stallion, variety Chapmane, from the Transvaal border, by a 

 great variety of ponies and a few larger mares, bred some 

 sixteen zebra mules (Plates CXXXVI. and CXXXVIL). 

 They proved to be very hardy, resisting the winter cold at an 

 elevation of 800 feet above the sea. They had double the 

 number of stripes common to the zebra, and were without 

 exception bright, intelligent, and handsome in appearance, had 

 excellent feet and clean limbs, with wonderful bone when the 



