314 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



adds :— " They are very easily broken by those who understand 

 them, but need kind treatment, as they are apt to repel force by 

 force, i. e., by kicking or striking with the forefeet" (p. 78). 



On the subject of the non-fertility of Mules we are told (p. 80) 

 that those who have paid the greatest amount of attention to 

 Mule production and Mule industry, know of no instance of a 

 female Mule producing young. A figure is given of a supposed 

 fertile female Mule living at the "Jardin d'Acclimatation" in 

 Paris, but in the opinion of the authors "this is not a case of 

 a fertile Mule breeding, but of an ordinary mare whose female 

 parent was influenced by a first alliance." Its mule-like appear- 

 ance is singular, possessing, as it does, the short head and long 

 ears of a Mule, as well as a mule-like tail. Some observations 

 on this very animal have been already published in ' The Zoologist ' 

 (1888, p. 103), where Mr. Sutherland has remarked that its his- 

 tory is not forthcoming, and if this were unimpeachable, it would, 

 in his opinion, be the sole authenticated case of the kind which 

 he has heard of in an experience of thirty years on the Continent 

 of Europe and in the United States. He adds that in Poitou 

 (where some 50,000 mares are kept for Mule-breeding) all the 

 experienced breeders disbelieved in this Parisian so-called fertile 

 Mule, there being no record in Poitou of a female Mule having 

 produced a foal. 



By way of supplement to these remarks, we may direct 

 attention to two other cases upon which Messrs. Tegetmeier 

 and Sutherland offer no comment. In the 'Sporting Magazine' 

 for 1818 (p. 176), will be found an account of a Mule in Suffolk 

 which produced a foal, and another case of the kind is mentioned 

 in 'The Field' of 15th July, 1873, where it is stated that a foal 

 (the produce of a Mule and Donkey) was seen by Mr. E. L. Layard, 

 and was presented for preservation to the Cape Town Museum. 



Our pen has run away with us to such an extent on the sub- 

 ject of Mules (to which the second half of the volume before us 

 is devoted), that we find little space left for comment on the 

 remaining chapters, ten in number. These relate to the Horse, 

 including a notice with a figure of Prejevalsky's Horse from 

 central Asia, the wild Asses of Africa (Somaliland) and Asia, 

 the different species of Zebra, and Hybrid Equidce, on which 

 some remarks by the late Mr. Jenner Weir will be found in v The 

 Zoologist' for 1888, p. 102. 



