Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/90

82 strange to say, few persons, comparatively speaking, know precisely, if indeed at all, what is or is not a mule—much less that there are two distinct animals, both the offspring of the horse and ass, one of which is, and the other is not a mule; much less, again, what are the distinctions between the two. The offspring of the male ass and the female horse—mare—is truly the mule—in Latin, hemionus, or half ass. The offspring of the male horse—stallion—and the female ass is the hinny—in Latin, hinnus; a word which conveys, as does the former word hemionus, a distinct sense, lost in the corresponding English synonyms, for hinnus is a derivative of the verb hinnire, to neigh; and in fact the hinny neighs, while the mule brays. Nor is this all: for while the mule has the greater external resemblance to the ass, so has the hinny the greater external resemblance to the horse; and a more minute examination carries us yet farther, and shows us that the mule, not only in outward form but in temper and characteristics, has more of the ass in his nature—the hinny more of the horse. It is in a considerable degree by the knowledge of these facts, which are positive, that the breeder is led, when he insists that, in order to produce the greatest advantage on the offspring, the excess of blood and vital energy must be on the side of the sire, and not on that of the dam; since he finds invariably that from the jackass and the mare, whether the latter be the merest dunghill or as thorough-bred as Spiletta, the mother of Eclipse, springs the mule of the ass type. The mule has long ears, slightly modified and shortened by the intermixture of the horse; the, comparatively, hairless tail; the narrow quarters and thin thighs; the erect mane, the elongated head, the slender legs and narrow, erect hoofs, and the voice of the ass. The hinny has