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THIS useful and hardy animal is the offspring of the Horse and the Ass, and being generally barren, furnishes an indisputable proof that the two species are perfectly distinct. The common Mule is very healthy, and will live above thirty years. It is found very serviceable in carrying burdens, particularly in mountainous and stony places, where horses are not so sure footed. The size and strength of our breed have been much improved by the importation of Spanish male Asses; and it is much to be wished that the useful qualities of this animal were more attended to; for, by proper care in its breaking, its natural obstinacy would in a great measure be corrected; and it might be formed with success for the saddle, the draught, or the burden. It is much less dainty in its food than the horse, and not so liable to disease; and it has been known to go a distance of eighty or one hundred miles in one day, with a heavy weight on its back, without much fatigue.

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Is the most elegant quadruped in nature. He is striped all over with the most pleasing regularity; in form he resembles the mule, being smaller than the horse and larger than the ass. The hair of his skin is uncommonly smooth, and he looks at a distance as an animal that some fanciful hand has surrounded with ribbons of pure white and jet black. He is, however, very ferocious and untractable, and is a native of Africa. Were the Zebra accustomed to our climate, there is little doubt but he might be soon domesticated. The black cross, which the ass bears on his back and shoulders, seems to prove an ancient affinity between these two animals, yet they refuse to produce together, and nature seems to have drawn between them an impassable line of demarcation. The Zebra feeds in the same manner as the horse, ass, and mule; and seems to delight in having clean straw and dried leaves to sleep upon. His voice can hardly be described; it is thought by some persons to have a distant resemblance to the sound of a post horn. It is more frequently exerted when the animal is alone than at other times. In former times Zebras were often sent as presents to

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the oriental princes. A governor of Batavia is said to have given one to the emperor of Japan, for which he received, as an equivalent for the company, a present to the value of sixty thousand crowns; and Teller informs us that the Great Mogul gave two thousand ducats for one of these animals.

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Is universally known, its flesh being one of the chief of human food. Its wool is of great use for clothing. Although of a moderate size, and well covered, it does not live more than nine or ten years. The Ram is strong and fierce, and will boldly attack a dog, and often comes off victorious: he has even been known,

regardless of danger, to engage a bull; and, his forehead being much harder than that of any other animal, he seldom fails to conquer; for the bull, by lowering his head, receives the stroke of the Ram between his eyes, which usually brings him to the ground. The Ewe goes with young about twenty weeks, and the Lamb has always been an emblem of innocence.

This animal is one of the most useful that nature ever submitted to the empire of man; and in patriarchal life, the number of Sheep constituted the riches of kings and princes.

In its domestic state, it is too well known to require a detail of its peculiar habits, or of the methods which have been adopted to improve the breed. No country produces finer Sheep than England, either with larger fleeces, or better adapted for the business of clothing. Those of Spain are confessedly finer, and we generally require some of their wool to work up with our own; but the weight of a Spanish fleece is much inferior to one of Lincoln or Tees Water. Merino, or Spanish Sheep, have of late years been introduced with great success into our English pastures, and the wool of this growth is esteemed as much as the wool brought from Spain. The late king gave great assistance to the introduction of this breed. In stormy weather, these animals generally hide themselves in caves from the fury of the elements; but if such retreats are not to be found, they collect themselves together, during the fall of snow, and place their heads near each other, with their muzzles inclined to the ground. In this situation they sometimes remain, till hunger compels them to gnaw each other's wool, which forms into hard balls in the stomach, and destroys them. But, in general, they are sought out and extricated soon after the storm has subsided.

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THE MOUFFLON, OR ARGALI,

IN figure somewhat resembles a ram, but his wool is rather like the hair of a goat. His horns are large and bent backwards, and his tail is short. He is of the size of a small deer, active, swift, wild, and found in flocks in the rocky, dry deserts of Asia, Kamtschatka, Barbary, and Corsica. His flesh and fat are delicious. He is called also the Siberian Sheep or Goat, and is considered by many as the parent stock of the domestic sheep.

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THE WALLACHIAN RAM.

THE singular conformation of the horns, which adorn the head of this breed of foreign Sheep, has induced us to insert a figure of the animal in this work. The

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