Vulgar words in The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 2 (Page 1)

This book at a glance

ass x 28
bastard x 1
boner x 2
            

Page 1

~   ~   ~   Sentence 72   ~   ~   ~

With the common ass, as the legs of the wild progenitor are almost always striped, we may feel assured that the occasional appearance of such stripes in the domestic animal is a case of simple reversion.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 127   ~   ~   ~

Mr. Boner speaks ('Chamois-hunting' 2nd edition 1860 page 92) of sheep often running wild in the Bavarian Alps; but, on making further inquiries at my request, he found that they are not able to establish themselves; they generally perish from the frozen snow clinging to their wool, and they have lost the skill necessary to pass over steep icy slopes.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 317   ~   ~   ~

But now let us turn to the result of crossing the horse and ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 332   ~   ~   ~

Many years ago I saw in the Zoological Gardens a curious triple hybrid, from a bay mare, by a hybrid from a male ass and female zebra.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 335   ~   ~   ~

As the zebra has such a conspicuously striped body and legs, it might have been expected that the hybrids from this animal and the common ass would have had their legs in some degree striped; but it appears from the figures given in Dr. Gray's 'Knowsley Gleanings' and still more plainly from that given by Geoffroy and F. Cuvier (13/34.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 355   ~   ~   ~

Another species of wild ass, the true E. hemionus or Kiang, which ordinarily has no shoulder-stripes, is said occasionally to have them; and these, as with the horse and ass, are sometimes double: see Mr. Blyth in the paper just quoted and in 'Indian Sporting Review' 1856 page 320: and Col. Hamilton Smith in 'Nat.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 360   ~   ~   ~

and Colonel S. Poole, who has had ample opportunities for observation, informs me that in the foal, when first born, the head and legs are often striped, but the shoulder-stripe is not so distinct as in the domestic ass; all these stripes, excepting that along the spine, soon disappear.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 364   ~   ~   ~

from a female of this species by a male domestic ass, had all four legs transversely and conspicuously striped, had three short stripes on each shoulder and had even some zebra-like stripes on its face!

~   ~   ~   Sentence 411   ~   ~   ~

On the other hand, mules from the horse and ass are certainly not in the least wild, though notorious for obstinacy and vice.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 443   ~   ~   ~

When purely-bred animals or plants reassume long-lost characters,--when the common ass, for instance, is born with striped legs, when a pure race of black or white pigeons throws a slaty-blue bird, or when a cultivated heartsease with large and rounded flowers produces a seedling with small and elongated flowers,--we are quite unable to assign any proximate cause.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 772   ~   ~   ~

I cannot doubt, from the observations of Colin and others, that the ass is prepotent over the horse; the prepotency in this instance running more strongly through the male than through the female ass; so that the mule resembles the ass more closely than does the hinny.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 779   ~   ~   ~

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.)

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,597   ~   ~   ~

so that at this early period other nations must have crossed the horse and ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 3,708   ~   ~   ~

According to Varro, the wild ass was formerly caught and crossed with the tame animal to improve the breed, in the same manner as at the present day the natives of Java sometimes drive their cattle into the forests to cross with the wild Banteng (Bos sondaicus).

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,296   ~   ~   ~

Webb, C.E., they are carefully bred, as much as 200 pounds having been paid for a stallion ass, and they have been immensely improved.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,099   ~   ~   ~

Now, in the wing of the pigeon or of any other bird, the first and fifth digits are aborted; the second is rudimentary and carries the so-called "bastard-wing;" whilst the third and fourth digits are completely united and enclosed by skin, together forming the extremity of the wing.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 6,593   ~   ~   ~

Now that we know that the wild parent of the ass commonly has striped legs, we may feel confident that the occasional appearance of stripes on the legs of the domestic ass is due to reversion; but this will not account for the lower end of the shoulder- stripe being sometimes angularly bent or slightly forked.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,875   ~   ~   ~

-in horses, -in the horse and ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,978   ~   ~   ~

Asinus taeniopus, the original of the domestic ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,980   ~   ~   ~

ASS, early domestication of the.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 7,988   ~   ~   ~

-crossed with wild ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 8,131   ~   ~   ~

-hybrids of the horse and ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 8,300   ~   ~   ~

BONER, Mr., semi-feral sheep.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,040   ~   ~   ~

-hybrid of ass and zebra.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,592   ~   ~   ~

-hybrids of the horse and ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 10,084   ~   ~   ~

HARTMAN, on the wild ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 10,287   ~   ~   ~

-hybrids of, with ass and zebra.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 10,356   ~   ~   ~

-from mare, ass, and zebra.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 12,896   ~   ~   ~

-in the horse and ass.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 12,909   ~   ~   ~

-crossing of the wild and domestic ass.

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