PARTURITION. 4rY 



25 foaled in troin 350 to 300 days. 

 21 " " from 360 to 377 days. 

 1 " " in 394 days. 



"Thus the extremes varied 83 days, while the average was 

 about 351, or fifty weeks one day each. Some breeders enter- 

 tain an opinion that old brood mares carry the foal considerably 

 longer than young ones, but they otfer no satisfactory evidence 

 in corroboration of their view. 



" The signals of approaching parturition are enlargement of 

 the external parts of generation, and a gummy exudation from 

 the orifice of the teats. Birth generally takes place within 

 twenty-four hours after the appearance of the latter symptom. 

 But the first acts as a warning, by preceding it for several 

 days. 



" It is but seldom tliat the mare requires manual assistance 

 at the time of foaling, which generally takes place without dif- 

 ficulty or danger, in the night. The mare, unlike the generality 

 of quadrupeds, foals standing. She rarely produces twins, 

 and when double births do occur, the ofispring almost invari- 

 ably die.* 



" As great facility of motion appears to have been designed 

 by nature in the formation of the horse, many physical pecu- 

 liarities conti-ibute to ensure that end. A bulky pendulous 

 ■udder, like that possessed by some of the ruminantia, would be 

 incompatible with that quality. The mamma, therefore, is 

 small, and furnished only with two teats, which supply a milk 

 of a highly nutritious character, and possessing a larger quan- 

 tity of saccharine matter than any other animal is known to be 

 endowed with.f 



* A remarkable exception to this rule are the bay colt Tweedledum and the bay- 

 filly Tweedledee, foaled in 1823 by Polymnia — by Musician out of Promise, sister to 

 Partisan — to Waterloo. 



The filly never sucked, but was fed on cow's milk, and was said to thrive better 

 than the colt. 



Both these animals were trained, and ran with some credit ; but the filly is not 

 named as a brood mare, and I find no mention of the colt as a stallion. 



f Parmentier submitted the milk of various animals to chemical examination, 

 and he found that the proportion of ingredients contained was in accordance with 

 the following table : 



Siigar — Mare's, woman's, ass's, goat's, ewe's, cow's. 



Whey — ^Ass's, mare's, woman's, cow's, goat's, ewe's. 



