PROPENSITIES OF ANIMALS. 
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these animals appears to be very great; I believe that they will prove capable of draw- 
ing, particularly up-hill, as heavy weights as the London Dray Horses, provided that 
they be made to draw from a proper level ; and I am quite confident that they will 
prove capable of bearing much more long-continued labour and living upon much 
less food. 
The hereditary propensities of the offspring of the Norwegian Ponies, whether full 
or half bred, are very singular. Their ancestry have been in the habit of obeying the 
voice of their rider's and not the bridle, and the horse-breakers complain, and cer- 
tainly with very good reason, that it is impossible to give them what is called a mouth ; 
they are nevertheless exceedingly docile, and more than ordinarily obedient where 
they understand the commands of their master. They appear also to be as incapable 
of understanding the use of hedges as they are of bridles, for they will walk delibe- 
rately, and much at their ease, through a strong hedge ; and I therefore conclude that 
the Norwegian horses are not in the habit of being restrained by hedges similar to 
those of England. 
The male and female parent appear to possess similar powers of transferring to 
their offspring their hereditary feelings and propensities, except in cases where mule 
offsprings are produced. In such cases, I think that I have witnessed a decided 
prevalence of the power of the male parent. The organization of the Mule, which is 
obtained by cross-breeding between the Horse and the Ass, is well known to be re- 
gulated to a much greater extent by the male than by the female parent ; and its 
disposition is, I have some reason to believe, to a very great extent, given by its male 
parent. I have noticed this in the Mule which is the offspring of a female Ass. I 
have seen a few only of these animals, but those which I have seen presented the ex- 
pression of countenance of the Horse, and were perfect horses in temper, and per- 
fectly without the sullenness and obstinacy of the more common Mule. The results 
of such violations of the ordinary laws of nature appear to be very various in different 
species of animals, and I should not here have introduced the subject, but that the 
characters of mules have in many instances misled the judgement of physiologists 
in their estimates of the comparative influence in ordinary cases of the male and the 
female upon the offspring. 
Whenever I have obtained cross-bred animals by propagating from families of dogs 
of different permanent habits, the hereditary propensities of the offspring have been 
very irregular, sometimes those of the male, and at other times those of the female 
parent being prevalent ; and in one instance I saw a very young dog, a mixture of the 
Springing Spaniel and Setter, which dropped upon crossing the track of a Partridge, 
as its male parent would have done, and sprang the bird in silence ; but the same 
dog having within a couple of hours afterwards found a Woodcock gave tongue very 
freely, and just as its female parent would have done. Such cross-bred animals are, 
however, usually worthless, and the experiments and observations which I have made 
upon them have not been very numerous or interesting. 
