36
There is found in Syria a so-called mule. It is not the same as
the cross between the horse and ass, but resembles it just as a wild
ass resembles the domesticated congener, and derives its name from the
resemblance. Like the wild ass, this wild mule is remarkable for its
speed. The animals of this species interbreed with one another; and
a proof of this statement may be gathered from the fact that a certain
number of them were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces, the
father of Pharnabazus, and the animal is there still. The number
originally introduced was nine, and there are three there at the
present day.
37
The phenomena of generation in regard to the mouse are the most
astonishing both for the number of the young and for the rapidity of
recurrence in the births. On one occasion a she-mouse in a state of
pregnancy was shut up by accident in a jar containing millet-seed, and
after a little while the lid of the jar was removed and upwards of one
hundred and twenty mice were found inside it.
The rate of propagation of field mice in country places, and the
destruction that they cause, are beyond all telling.
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