182 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



standing for the service of Jennys in various parts of the North-West 

 and the Punjab, but not nearly enough to produce any large results, 



COVERING. 



14. Donkeys are very uncertain coverers. Slight changes in tem- 

 perature, strangeness of surroundings, awkwardness on the part of the 

 attendants and many other seemingly trivial circumstances will often 

 make them point-blank refuse to touch a mare, even of their own 

 species. The difficulty is still further enhanced when they are required 

 to serve horse-mares. Every year, when our new batch of jacks 

 arrives, we have a certain number who refuse to do what is re- 

 quired of them for weeks and months. More particularly is this 

 the case in instances where they have been allowed even once to 

 leap a jenny. Our mode of procedure is to take the recruit out with 

 an old stallion who is a ready coverer, and walk them both slowly 

 round and round the pony who stands hobbled in the centre. The 

 old hand, when ready, is allowed his leap in front of the new comer, 

 who is thus acted on by both amorous and jealous feelings. After 

 a few lessons he generally takes to the work. If not, a donkey- 

 mare in season is presented, and when he is sufficiently prepared a 

 pony is substituted. Occasionally he refuses both. We have some- 

 times been obliged to turn stallions loose for weeks together with the 

 herd of donkey-mares before we could induce them to touch one at 

 all. To show how peculiar and fastidious they are, I will give an 

 extract from Mr. Sutherland's excellent little Memorandum on Mule 

 breeding in India :— 



" A jack I knew in Poitou had been hand-reared by a little girl, 

 owing to his dam having been burnt to death the night he was born. 

 This jack always required a maquignon or groom to clothe himself 

 with a horse -rug round his legs before he would prepare himself." 



The same authority tells us, that the presence of anything which the 

 animal has been brought up with when young is often necessary. A 

 jack reared with cows will sometimes require a horned beast to be 

 present. In some countries a jack when born is taken away from his 

 own dam, and put to a horse-mare to be suckled. When this cannot be 

 arranged, he is put amongst horse fillies as soon as he is weaned. I have 

 been perhaps a little prolix on this subject, but I wished to show the 

 difficulties we have to contend with. Often, a thoroughly tested donkey 



