CD memorandum1 24 April 1859
[Down]
Is the common mule often but faintly barred or striped transversely on the legs, like a zebra?2 Whether more on front or hind legs? Would it be possible to say that out of 100 mules, so many were barred on the legs? What is colour of body of barred mules?
(2) Is the shoulder-stripe (like that on ass) generally present in mules? If so in what coloured mules is it generally present or absent.
(3) Is the shoulder stripe ever double or treble on each shoulder? This is a very interesting point:—
(4) In any mule, which is much striped or barred, do a few faint stripes ever occur on side of face.
(5) Are stripes or bars plainer or less plain in the mule foal before the first hair is shed? This, however, could be ascertained only when number are bred.
These questions may appear trivial; but they possess more interest than is at first apparent; & I shd. be infinitely obliged for any information on the subject.—3
C
Down Bromley Kent
Ap. 24. 1859.—4
Footnotes
Bibliography
Natural selection: Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Roulin, François Désiré. 1835. Recherches sur quelques changemens observés dans les animaux domestiques transportés de l’ancien dans le nouveau continent. Mémoires présentés par divers Savans a l’Académie Royale des Sciences de l’Institut de France. Sciences mathématiques et physiques 6: 319–52.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Questions about stripes on mules.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2454
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Unidentified
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 206 (Letters)
- Physical description
- AmemS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2454,” accessed on 12 September 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2454.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7