TSE AFRICAN WILD ASS. 17 



those of tlie horse. This thickening is due to an extremely- 

 dense layer of connective tissue, which is so close and hard 

 that when the skin has been tanned and dried it looks like 

 horn, and is utilised for the manufacture of the long boots 

 worn by foreign cavalry oflftcers. 



Mr. C. L. Sutherland furnishes me with the following 

 list of five cardinal points in which the ass differs from the 

 horse : 



" (1) In the period of gestation, which in the'' ass, as before 

 tated, is at least twelve months, whereas in the horse it is 

 eleven. 



" (2) The absence o£ chestnuts on the hind legs of the ass. 



" (3) The number of loin vertebrae in the ass is five, in the 

 horse six. In the mule it is sometimes five and sometimes six. 



" (4) The ass in comparison with the horse more frequently 

 produces twins ; in many cases, however, these are the result of 

 superfoetation, as is evidenced by the difference in size of the 

 produce. In my experience, writes Mr. Sutherland, an ass in 

 foal with twins always aborts. 



" (5) The entire absence in the ass of the white stockings or 

 fetlocks so common in the horse, and also of the star or blaze 

 on the forehead. In these particulars the mule follows the 

 ass, which is very prepotent over the horse in those cases where 

 the ass is the male parent. The mule may be said to be three- 

 fourths of an ass rather than intermediate between its parents, 

 whereas the mute, which is also called a hinny or jennet (the 

 ' bardot ' of the French), in which the horse is the male parent, 

 favours the horse rather than the ass. 



" Piebald or skewbald asses, though sometimes occurring, are 

 not common, and can only be produced from parents of which 

 one at least is either piebald or skewbald. A white jack and 

 a brown jenay, or the converse, will not produce broken coloured 

 offspring, unless this character has previously appeared in the 

 ancestors of one or other of the parents." 



A further distinction between the two species exists in 



c 



