CLASS MAMMALIA. 



213 



FIG. 368. 



E' quus cabal 



Horse. 



as to allow the toes only to reach the ground.* Strictly 



herbivorous, with upper and lower incisors, they seem 



designed to crop after 



the ox, and in their turn 



to be followed by the 



narrow-jawed sheep 



with the cleft upper lip, 



enabling it to nibble 



where neither of the 



others could thrust its 



wide mouth. 



The Horse has been 



so diversified by domes- 

 tication as to defy all attempts to trace its origin, f It is 



adapted to constant movement by having a simple stom- 

 ach without a gall blad- 

 der, which permits un- 

 interrupted digestion. 

 Changing its coat of hair 

 to suit the season, it is 

 easily acclimated ; in trop- 

 ical regions the hair re- 

 maining short and sparse ; 

 in colder, lengthening to 

 three or four inches, and 

 thickening so as to be- 

 come almost woolly. 

 The Ass is generally employed by the peasantry 



throughout the East. Feeding upon coarser herbage 



* The earlier fossil species had five, later ones four, and still later, three 

 toes, two of which appear in our one-toed form, by the so-called splint bones. 



t Careful research proves that there is not a distinctive Arabian breed 

 oftentimes considered the parent of the horse any more than there is a Per- 

 sian or an English one. 



FIG. 369. 



E' quus as'\ nus. Wild Ass. 



