LECTUEE XIT. 417 



their intermixture with other dogs. Coition took place De- 

 cemher 31, 1778, when they were two years and ten months' 

 old, and after sixty-three days the bitch cast seven whelps. 

 The keeper took up the whelps to examine them, immediately 

 after which the enraged mother killed and devoured all those 

 the keeper had touched. There remained but one, a female. 



Fourth Litter. This female was brought up with its parents 

 in a large vault, into which no other animal was admitted. At 

 the beginning of 1781, when about two years old, the young 

 bitch was covered by her father, and cast in the course of the 

 spring four whelps, two of which she devoured. There thus 

 remained one pair, of whose fate we learn nothing. The 

 French revolution probably interrupted these experiments. 



The hybrids of he-goat and sheep, which we term "buck- 

 sheep," {chahins by the French), are bred in large numbers in 

 Chile, as their long-haired, half-woolly fleece, known by the 

 name of " pellons," is much sought after for bedding, carpets, 

 and saddle-cloths. The buck-sheep of the first generation 

 have the form of the mother and the hairy coat' of the father. 

 The hair is, however, almost as stiff as those of the he-goat, so 

 that the fleeces are but little valued. These bastards are conse- 

 quently not bred from, though they are perfectly prolific between 

 themselves; a small number only is retained for further bi'eeding. 

 The buck-sheep which furnish the most valuable skins, are those 

 of the second generation, and are obtained by the crossing of 

 the male buck sheep with ewes. These half-blood buck-sheep 

 are, as far as we know, indefinitely prolific ; but after three or 

 four generations their direct descendants undergo a modifica- 

 tion which diminishes their commercial value : their hair be- 

 comes thicker and harder, thus approaching that of the goat, 

 which is the more remarkable as these half-blood buck-sheep 

 are one-fourth goat and three-fourth sheep, and are thus much 

 nearer the sheep than the goat. Still more remarkable is it, 

 that in order to re-endow the succeeding generations with fine 

 and soft hair, the females must be crossed with the males of 

 the first blood. We thus obtain a mongrel, with three-eighth 

 goat blood and five-eighth sheep blood, which does not stand 

 so near to the sheep as its mother, and yet possesses a softer 



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