396 Mr. Knight on the comparative Influence of 
Nature has given to the offspring of many animals (those 
of the sheep, the cow, and the mare, afford familiar examples ) 
the power, at an early age, to accompany their parents in 
flight ; and the legs of such animals are very nearly of the 
same length, at the birth, as when they have attained their per- 
fect growth. When the female parent is large, and the foetus 
consequently so, the offspring will be large at its birth, in pro- 
portion to the bulk it will ultimately attain, and its legs will 
thence be long comparatively with the depth of the chest and 
shoulders. When, on the contrary, the female is small, and 
the foetus so, at the birth, the length of the legs of the young 
animal will be short comparatively with the depth of its chest 
and shoulders ; and an animal in the latter form will be 
greatly preferable, either for the purposes of labour, or of 
food to mankind. I have seen this difference in the influence 
of the male and female parent, on the offspring, very strik- 
ingly exemplified, in the result of an attempt to obtain very 
large mules from the male ass and the mare. The largest 
females, that could be procured, were selected, and the forms 
of the offspring, at the birth, were perfectly consistent with 
the theory of Mr. Cline ; they were remarkably large: and 
l observed, that the length of their legs, when they were only 
a few days old, very nearly equalled that of the legs of their 
female parents. I examined the same animals when five years 
old, and in the depth of their chests and shoulders, they very 
little exceeded their male parent ; and they were consequently 
of little or no value ; whilst other mules, which were obtained 
from the same male parent (a Spanish ass), but from mares 
of small stature, were perfectly well proportioned. I have 
never seen the little mule, which is propagated from the 
