Note 16 — Chapter XIV · INHERITANCE continued—FIXEDNESS OF CHARACTER—PREPOTENCY—SEXUAL LIMITATION—CORRESPONDENCE OF AGE.

Flourens, ‘Longévité Humaine,’ p. 144, on crossed jackals. With respect to the difference between the mule and the hinny I am aware that this has generally been attributed to the sire and dam transmitting their characters differently; but Colin, who has given in his ‘Traité Phys. Comp.,’ tom. ii. pp. 537-539, the fullest description which I have met with of these reciprocal hybrids, is strongly of opinion that the ass preponderates in both crosses, but in an unequal degree. This is likewise the conclusion of Flourens, and of Bechstein in his ‘Naturgeschichte Deutschlands,’ b. i. s. 294. The tail of the hinny is much more like that of the horse than is the tail of the mule, and this is generally accounted for by the males of both species transmitting with greater power this part of their structure; but a compound hybrid which I saw in the Zoological Gardens, from a mare by a hybrid ass-zebra, closely resembled its mother in its tail.