342 



THE MULES. 



the reproduction of forms, marks, and colours, the 

 evidence of anterior excitements are demonstrated 

 in the case of the mare whose first foal having been 

 a mule by a stallion quagga, continued after a lapse 

 of five years to reproduce the markings of that ani- 

 mal in three successive births, although the parent 

 of this and the subsequent progeny was a black 

 Arabian, and of course one of homogeneous species 

 v^^ith herself: these facts, detailed in letters of the 

 late Earl of Morton, and published in the first part 

 of the Philosophical Transactions of the year 1821, 

 have not yet received all the consideration they de- 

 serve, and they prove that at least some important 

 forces at present acting on the laws of nature are not 

 beyond the sphere of observation. We here subjoin 

 representations of the mare and her successive oS- 

 spring, in Plates XXVI., XXYII., and XXIX., * 

 which represents the quagga mule, and Plate XIV. 

 the brood mare and her last foal, still marked with 

 the black stripes on the body ; the mare was seven- 

 eighths of Arabian blood, and consequently her 

 progeny by the Arab was nineteen- twentieths tho- 

 rough-bred ; yet not only these hippotigrine marks 

 remained, but the manes also were coarse and stand- 

 ing, though in other respects the young horses were 

 elegant and spirited animals. One more remark on 

 this subject must not however be omitted, inasmuch 

 as it seems to point out the fact of the quaggas 



* All the figures produced in these plates are reduced 

 copies from the paintings, by Agasse, in Surgeon's College, 

 London. 



