Fertile Mule

Forlornly braying, the mule lives a life of toil, barren of love. For like many hybrids, the mule is sterile. So skeptical of the few reported cases of mule fertility is Encyclopaedia Britannica that it refuses to consider them authentic. But last week from Natal, South Africa, issued a report that appeared to have the stamp of authority. In a letter to Nature (British weekly), Ernest Warren of the Natal Museum reported the following "indisputable example of fertility in the mule":

"On November 24, 1924, a common mule on the farm of W. J. Kilian of Weenen, Natal, gave birth to a male foal. . . . The mule in question ... is a typical mule in every way and has a considerable preponderance of the characteristics of the ass. . . . The foal grew rapidly and is now a reliable riding horse, practically indistinguishable from a pure horse. . . .

"This year the same mule, which is about 15 years old, gave birth to a second male foal, and this foal was sired by a different stallion from that of the first foal. Thus, between the births of the two foals there has been an interval of seven years, although the mule has been repeatedly served. ... It would seem as though South Africa were in some way favorable for mule fertility. . . ."

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