90 MULES AND MULE BREEDING. 



interior of the ears, from the tip to the point of insertion 

 in the head, is well furnished with silky ringlets, termed 

 cadeneftes — a great sign of purity of breed. His lips are 

 curiously pendulous, the lower lip especially. He often 

 carries a good long mane and forelock. His neck, while 

 neither long nor short, is strong, thick, and broad. As in 

 the asinine race generally, there is a want of withers, and 

 the back is very straight. His shoulders are tolerable, 

 inclined to be upright rather than the reverse ; his chest is 

 broad, and his limbs are simply enormous. It is in the 

 matter of limbs and feet that the Poitou ass differs 

 essentially from other breeds, and it is these points that 

 the mule breeder has chiefly to regard in selecting a 

 haudet. His forearm, while large, invariably exhibits a 

 want of muscular development, owing to these animals — 

 the males at least — never being worked or even exercised. 

 His knees are very large, and he should " tape '' well 

 below the knee. Many Poitou jacks measure 9 inches below 

 the knee, after allowing for hair, of Avhich there is abund- 

 ance. Eight and a half inches, however, may be con- 

 sidered as good measurement, the bone being usually 

 good and flat. His pasterns are short, and his feet 

 larger and much less contracted at the heels than those 

 of other breeds of asses ; while the feet and posterior 

 part of the fetlock, immediately below what are known to 

 veterinarians as the sesamoid bones, should be well covered 

 with abundance of long silky hair, when the animal is said 

 to be hien talonne. His tail is short, and usually furnished 

 with long hair at the extremity only. His quarters are 

 generally thin and spare, and this is a point in which he 

 requires improvement. His body is long, and, if his ribs 

 are not as well sprung as those of a horse, he mostly 

 girths well. Contrary to our ideas on the subject of cart- 



