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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wise characteristic is the color of the pelage, a pale gray, almost 

 white, passing into dun on the head and neck, and blending insen- 

 sibly on the flanks with the pure white of the belly and limbs. 

 The mane, the brush of the tail, and the long hairs of the lower 

 legs and hoofs, are black. There is no trace of the dark dorsal 

 stripe running from the mane to the tail which is characteristic 

 of the hemione. The hairy covering is long and undulating, 

 especially in the rigorous winter of that northern region. 



The external appearan.ce of the animal, as may be inferred 

 from our drawing (Fig. 1), is very like that of the small horse or 



Fig. 1. — Dzungarian Wild Horse (Equus Prejevalskii). 



pony. It has been assumed, principally on the ground of the 

 form of the tail, that Prejevalski's horse is a hemione. This opinion 

 does not appear to us tenable; it is evidently founded on a beg- 

 ging of the question, because we have so far been ignorant of the 

 real form of the tail of the primitive horse. The study of other 

 wild species of the genus seems to indicate, on the other hand, 

 that the brush form is characteristic of all the wild horses, the 

 plumy tail and mane being acquisitions of domesticity, like the 

 drooping ears of dogs, pigs, and goats. The tail of Prejevalski's 

 horse is, moreover, more brushy than that of the hemiones. Proofs 

 of another kind are derived from paleontology. There are among 

 the representations of Equidce of the Quaternary epoch, engraved 

 by primitive men on reindeer-horn and ivory, discovered by M. 

 Piette in the caves of the south of France, some very clearly rep- 

 resenting a horse with a brush tail and short ears like those of 

 the Prejevalski horse. 



