86 now TO BKEKD MULES. 



Spiletra, the mother of Eclipse. But not only is it very 

 certain that the Grey Eagle and Wagner blood is wasted 

 to no purpose by this prostitution to vile uses, in giving 

 the qualities of blood to the moles, but it is even question- 

 able whether two stout, sound, active Canadians, or Xor- 

 mans, would not have thrown better foals to the same jack 

 than thes3 noble mares, thus sadly misapplied. 



On the other hand, if w^e are breeding hinnies, we want 

 the very best stallion we can find, in blood and bone, so 

 that he be not disproportionably large ; while in the female 

 ass, we only require soundness, and sufficient size to render 

 her roomy enough to contain a foetus so much larger than 

 her own natural i^rogeny, as the hinny foal is like to be. 

 But as no one breeds hinnies or is likely to do so, this side 

 of the question is worthy of no farther consideration, and 

 wiih a few words more we quit it altogether. It is gene- 

 rally asserted that the hinny has been tried and found nearly 

 a worthless animal, though admitted to be a beautiful one. 

 rie^ias only Vjeen bred occasionally in Spain, since the 

 great decline in the number and quality of the male asses, 

 and of mules, generally, from the want of male asses, — 

 arising from the frightful consumption of those animals 

 during the Peninsular war, — and the subsequent incessant 

 civil wars w^hich have convulsed that unhappy country, 

 has rendered it necessary to supply their want. We are 

 not inclined to adopt this assertion. We believe that the 

 hinny, so far from being a worthless animal, is as good 

 as he is handsome, and superior to the mule for the 

 uses for which he is fitted, — that is, for a saddle animal. 

 But being inferior to the horse as a saddle animal, and in- 

 ferior to the mule as a beast of draft or burden, in which 

 respect alone the latter can compete wdth the horse, he has 

 no special jDlace of his own ; and, therefore, it having been 

 worth no one's while to cultivate hinnies, they have fallen 



