The following extract
from his letter is very interesting: "I need not tell you that there
being such hybrids is now generally accepted as a fact. Buffon
(_Supplements_, tom. iii. p. 7, 1756) obtained one such hybrid in 1751
and eight in 1752. Sanson (_La Culture_, vol. vi. p. 372, 1865) mentions
a case observed in the Vosges, France. Geoff. St. Hilaire (_Hist. Nat.
Gen. des reg. org._, vol. iii. p. 163) was the first to mention, I
believe, that in different parts of South America the ram is more
usually crossed with the she-goat than the sheep with the he-goat. The
well-known 'pellones' of Chile are produced by the second and third
generation of such hybrids (Gay, 'Hist, de Chile,' vol. i. p. 466,
_Agriculture_, 1862). Hybrids bred from goat and sheep are called
'chabin' in French, and 'cabruno' in Spanish. In Chile such hybrids are
called 'carneros lanudos'; their breeding _inter se_ appears to be not
always successful, and often the original cross has to be recommenced to
obtain the proportion of three-eighths of he-goat and five-eighths of
sheep, or of three-eighths of ram and five-eighths of she-goat; such
being the reputed best hybrids.
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