Mule Breeding. 95 



strengthened my first impression, that the chief secret lay in the 

 in-and-in breeding (consanguinity). 



In or about the year 1872, I visited an old man in a small 

 country town in Northumberland, who had been a bird breeder 

 for a great number of years; he bred mules principally, and 

 had obtained some very handsome specimens chiefly evenly- 

 marked birds. I could not glean much from this individual 

 himself, as he was by no means of a communicative disposition ; 

 but I learnt from a neighbour of his, who had the same 

 strain of hens, but had been a little less fortunate in obtaining 

 good mules, that the origin of them had been the produce of 

 a common hen canary and a " London Fancy " cock. I failed 

 to learn anything of the antecedents of the hen as to parentage ; 

 but the cock, I ascertained, was bred by a gentleman who had 

 bred London Fancies for several years, and during the whole of 

 that time he had not introduced a change of blood. 



When I got north of the River Tweed, I visited one day a very 

 old fancier, who had had the good fortune to breed and rear 

 some excellent mules. I found him to be a respectable and 

 trustworthy man, and consequently I courted his acquaintance. 

 I was too familiar with the peculiarities of the Scotch people to 

 begin to exhibit any inquisitiveness at first, but as time rolled 

 on our friendship waxed greater, and I ventured to ask him how 

 he procured the hens which bred him his good mules. He 

 replied, " They are sib bred." " Sib bred ! " I repeated ; " what 

 is that P " He said, very gravely, " Weel, sib bred is sib bred, 

 an I thocht that onybody kenned what that was." However, I 

 found that the meaning of the words was consanguinity ; and 

 thus the idea which I had naturally formed was practically 

 confirmed. He further informed me that all the hens he had 

 bred mules from were as " sib bred " as they could be, and that 

 all the principal Scotch breeders attributed their success to this 

 cause. My theory is that the blood becomes so thoroughly pure 

 in one direction by the process of breeding in-and-in that the 

 admixture with a foreign or opposite species produces little 

 change in it ; and I have no doubt that this is the veritable 

 solution of the " secret " which has been so closely kept for so 



