84 MULES AND MULE BREEDING. 



was found fully cliarg-ed with milk. Thinking the ])roceed- 

 ing rather ' unnatural/ Mr. Cole had the donkey removed, 

 and the mule milked by hand ; but this was not done to a 

 sufficient extent, and, in consequence, milk abscess occurred, 

 which opened, the udder having previously swollen to a 

 very large size. 



^' This case is interesting, inasmuch as it proves that the 

 secretion of milk can take place in a hybrid animal which 

 is naturally sterile, and that it has no necessary connection 

 with the maternal relations." 



This example is not by any means a solitary one. A 

 communication from the late Mr. J. B. Evans, of the Cape 

 Colony, appeared in the Live Stock Journal of June 23, 

 1893, in which he spoke of a mare mule having to be milked, 

 as each year she had adopted a foal, driving the mother 

 away, and secreting milk in abundance for the support of 

 the foal that she had fostered. Accounts not unfrequently 

 appear in the American and other papers, of mules which 

 are seen suckling young, and the conclusion is at once 

 arrived at that these young are the offspring of the 

 animals that are supporting them, but it may be regarded 

 as perfectly certain that they are merely adopted foals, 

 which by their endeavours to suck female mules have 

 developed in the latter abnormal lactation. 



