56 HORSES. Chap. IL 



circumstance may perhaps partly account for the singular 

 fact that to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, 23 over an 

 enormous and humid area, in Ava, Pegu, Siam, the Malayan 

 archipelago, the Loo Choo Islands, and a large part of 

 China, no full-sized horse is found. When we advance as 

 far eastward as Japan, the horse reacquires his full size. 24 



With most of our domesticated animals, some breeds are 

 kept on account of their curiosity or beauty; but the horse* 

 is valued almost solely for its utility. Hence semi-monstrous 

 breeds are not preserved ; and probably all the existing 

 breeds have been slowly formed either by the direct action 

 of the conditions of life, or through the selection of individual 

 differences. No doubt semi-monstrous breeds might have 

 been formed : thus Mr. Waterton records 25 the case of a mare 

 which produced successively three foals without tails ; so 

 that a tailless race might have been formed like the tailless 

 races of dogs and cats. A Russian breed of horses is said to 

 have curled hair, and Azara 26 relates that in Paraguay 

 horses are occasionally born, but are generally destroyed, 

 with hair like that on the head of a negro ; and this pecu- 

 liarity is transmitted even to half-breeds : it is a curious 

 case of correlation that such horses have short manes and 

 tails, and their hoofs are of a peculiar shape like those of 

 a mule. 



It is scarcely possible to doubt that the long-continued 

 selection of qualities serviceable to man has been the chief 

 agent in the formation of the several breeds of the horse. 

 Look at a dray-horse, and see how well adapted he is to draw 

 heavy weights, and how unlike in appearance to any allied 

 wild animal. The English race-horse is known to be de- 

 rived from the commingled blood of Arabs, Turks, and 

 Barbs ; but selection, which was carried on during very early 



23 Mr. J. H. Moor, ' Notices of the Service Institution,' vol. iv. 



Indian Archipelago ;' Singapore, 1837, 25 'Essays on Natural History,' 2nd 



p. 189. A pony from Java was sent series, p. 161. 



('Athenaeum,' 1842, p. 718) to the 2a ' Quadru pedes du Paraguay,' 



Queen only 28 inches in height. For torn. ii. p. 333. Dr. Canfield informs 



the Loo Choo Islands, see Beechey's me that a breed with curly hair was 



* Vcyage,' 4th edit., vol. i. p. 499. formd by selection at Los Angeles in 



24 J. Jrawfbrd, ' History of the North America,. 

 Horse ; ' ' Journal of Royal United 



