150 MULES AND MULE BREEDING. 



parentage as such lias never been properly authenticated. 

 '^ CatLerine '' was imported in 1873 from Algeria^ and after 

 this lapse of time (twenty-two years) it is found impossible 

 to obtain the necessary information. The fact that her 

 offspring by a horse are fertile, while those by an ass are 

 sterile, tends rather to show that she is merely a mare 

 whose dam once bore a mule, and subsequently bore 

 ^^ Catherine/^ the latter showing signs of the influence of a 

 previous impregnation. On the other hand, by the casual 

 observer she would at once be pronounced a mule from her 

 general appearance, her style of playing, her walk, her 

 head and ears, and her voice, all of which are mulish. In 

 any case, she is the only instance of a possibly fertile mule 

 that has ever come under the writer^s observation after 

 a rather wide experience. The various cases which from 

 time to time are reported from the United States must 

 be taken — in the absence of definite information regarding 

 the parturition of the mule, which is never given — as cases 

 of induced lactation. In warm climates it is stated that 

 occasionally female mules become pregnant, but that 

 pregnancy is invariably followed by abortion, and that at 

 an early stage. 



The stallion mule is absolutely sterile. He is a most 

 undesirable beast, either in the prairie, park, or paddock. 

 He is, however, much used in Northern Italy for draught 

 work, especially in Genoa. He is capable of performing an 

 enormous amount of work on very little food, but is apt to 

 be a great nuisance in a stable. The sterility of the male 

 mule is allowed on all hands, and if any reader is inclined 

 to question the fact, he is referred to "Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles" en 1824, tome premier, page 184. In 

 one of the galleries of the museum of the Jardin des 

 Plantes, Paris, there will be found a specimen^ two or three 



