Chap. VIII. 
HYBEIDS AND MONGEELS. 
275 
other variety. For instance, I think those authors are 
right, who maintain that the ass has a prepotent power 
over the horse, so that both the mule and the hinny 
more resemble the ass than the horse; but that thfe 
prepotency runs more strongly in the male-ass than in 
the female, so that the mule, which is the offspring of 
the male-ass and mare, is more like an ass, than is the 
hinny, which is the offspring of the female-ass and 
stallion. 
Much stress has been laid by some authors on the 
supposed fact, that mongrel animals alone are born 
closely like one of their parents; but it can be shown 
that this does sometimes occur with hybrids; yet I 
grant much less frequently with hybrids than with 
mongrels. Looking to the cases which I have collected 
of cross-bred animals closely resembling one parent, 
the resemblances seem chiefly confined to characters 
almost monstrous in their nature, and which have sud¬ 
denly appeared—such as albinism, melanism, deficiency 
of tail or horns, or additional fingers and toes; and dd 
not relate to characters which have been slowly acquired 
by selection. Consequently, sudden reversions to the 
perfect character of either parent would be more likely 
to occur with mongrels, which are descended from va¬ 
rieties often suddenly produced and semi-monstrous in 
character, than with hybrids, which are descended from 
species slowly and naturally produced. On the whole 
I entirely agree with Dr. Prosper Lucas, who, after 
arranging an enormous body of facts with respect to 
animals, comes to the conclusion, that the laws of resem- 
blance of the child to its parents are the same, whether 
the two parents differ much or little from each other, 
namely in the union of individuals of the same variety, 
or of different varieties, or of distinct species. 
Laying aside the question of fertility and sterility. 
