i}EMKi.i.ir.uiors .i.\/> MrLT/r.mors I'h'K'.-x.txcv. io5 



a Colt and Filly foal on the 2n.l March, Isrf'. l><«tli livini,'. On tht- Itith March. IS/C, she- 

 brought forth two tilly Koals, thus giving birth to four Foals — one Colt and three Filliefi 

 — in less than thirteen months. 



The /^V/(/ (May 10, Is?'?) reports a Mare in Devonshire, which produced twin Foals 

 three times within three years. The Mare went full tinii; in each instance, but only one 

 Foal (they were all Colts) lived for any length of time. According to the Liitrpool 

 Merrni-y (July 23, 18-1.")) a Mare at Abringhall, tifteen years old, brought forth /o«r Colts 

 in the space of fifteen months 1 



Raabe, in 1S.')2, witnessed a triple birth in a five year-old ^[are ; the three Foals were 

 born alive, and were completely developed, but they soon died. 



Two instiinces of triple birth are given by SaintCyr, the most rem.arkable being that 

 recorded by Paugoui'-. This occurred with a Mare which, put to the Horse only once, on 

 February 17, IS 13, aborted during the night of September '27-28, two Foals being found in 

 one chorion ; on the 2.'ith of the following February, it j>rodiiced a third Foal perfectly 

 formed, and which lived. In the second case, related by Devilliers, the Mare had been 

 put to the Stiillion several times in May, June, and July. On March 10 it produced 

 three properly-formed but dead Foals, one having ai)parently ceased to live some days 

 before. 



In the Vffrn'nnrian for 1875 (p. 334) allusion is m.ade to an agricultural Mare in 

 Norfolk, eight years old, and not known to have been previously bred from, producing 

 three Foals at a birth. The first was dead, and appeared to have been so for several days. 

 The second was born alive immediately after the birth of the first, but only lived about 

 half an hour. The third was born dead seven hours after the second, but its condition 

 showed that at the time parturition commenced it was alive. The Foals were all of the 

 same colour — bay — and were perfectly formed. The Mare made a gootl recovery. In the 

 same journal for 1867 (p. .">95), Mr. Newman, of Ilavant, reports the birth of three fine, 

 well-develoj>ed Foals, two of which were born alive and lived. The Mare, of the cart- 

 breed, had gone the full i)eriod of pregnancy. 



In tile Vtteriuary Journal for >Iarch, 1882, Mac^illivray reports the case of a Mare 

 twenty-one years old, which produced three Foals at a birth, one of which was dead. Two 

 years previously she had twin Foals. 



The most numerous instances of twin or triple j^cstation in the >rarc 

 are, however, to he attrihuted to two successive fecundations, of which 

 Saint-Cyr has collected eight examples. In all of these, strange to say, 

 the Mares had been put to a Stallion of the Equine and Asinine species 

 in succession, and brought forth each a Foal and a Mule. In the majority 

 of these instances, the two fecundations were within a brief period — 

 the one succeeding the other immediately, or, at any rate, within the 

 same day; though in one instance there was an interval of fifteen days. 

 Which was the elder of the two Foals in tliese births — the one first born 

 or the one first conceived ? Though in the imman species such a ques- 

 tion might have some importance, with animals it has only a physio- 

 logical interest ; but the order in which they were born would, never- 

 theless, be the only rational assignment. 



The female Ass more frequently brings forth twins than the Mare ; 

 but even in this animal such an occurrence is rare. In an average of 

 thirty she- Asses, kept for the production of milk by a man at Fa 

 Chapelle Saint-Denis, only four liad twins in a period of seventeen 

 years. 



Cow. 



Double and triple births are not so unusual in the Cow, the former 

 being far from uncommon. Indeed, it is so frequent in some breeds, 

 and with individuals, that it has been suggested to produce by selection 

 a breed of Cows which would habitually have twins ; while even quad- 

 ruple, quintuple, and more births have been recorded. 



Mr. J. Macgillivray, of BanfiF, in an excellent little "Manual of Veterinary Science 

 and Practice," pxiblished in 1857, writes : — "A neighbour of mine, Mr. Peter Low, had 



