Chap. II. 



THEIR COLOURS AND STRIPES. 



57 



times in England, 27 together with training, have made him a 

 very different animal from his parent-stocks. As a writer in 

 India, who evidently knows the pure Arab well, asks, who 

 now, " looking at our present breed of race-horses, could have 

 conceived that they were the result of the union of the Arab 

 horse and African mare ? " The improvement is so marked 

 that in running for the Goodwood Cup " the first descendants 

 •of Arabian, Turkish, and Persian horses, are allowed a dis- 

 count of 18 lbs. weight ; and when both parents are of these 

 countries a discount of 06 lbs. 28 It is notorious that the 

 Arabs have long been as careful about the pedigree of their 

 horses as we are, and this implies great and continued care 

 in breeding. Seeing what has been done in England by 

 careful breeding, can we doubt that the Arabs must likewise 

 have produced during the course of centuries a marked effect 

 on the qualities of their horses? But we may go much 

 farther back in time, for in the Bible we hear of studs care- 

 fully kept for breeding, and of horses imported at high prices 

 from various countries. 29 We may therefore conclude that, 

 whether or not the various existing breeds of the horse have 

 proceeded from one or more aboriginal stocks, yet that a great 

 amount of change has resulted from the direct action of the 

 conditions of life, and probably a still greater amount from 

 the long-continued selection by man of slight individual 

 differences. 



With several domesticated quadrupeds and birds, certain 

 coloured marks are either strongly inherited or tend to re- 

 appear after having been lost for a long time. As this 

 subject will hereafter be seen to be of importance, I will give 

 a full account of the colouring of horses. All English breeds, 



27 See the evidence on this head in 

 'Land and Water,' May 2nd, 1868. 



28 Prof. Low, ' Domesticated Ani- 

 mals,' p. 546. With respect to the 

 writer in India, see ' India Sporting 

 Review,' vol. ii. p. 181. As Lawrence 

 has remarked ( ' The Horse,' p. 9), 

 ** perhaps no instance has ever oc- 

 curred of a three-part bred horse (i.e. 

 a horse, one of whose grandparents 

 was of impure blood) saving his dis- 



tance in running two miles with 

 thoroughbred racers." Some few in- 

 stances are on record of seven-eights 

 racers having been successful. 



29 Prof. Gervais (in his ' Hist. Nat. 

 Mamm.,' torn. ii. p. 14-4) has collected 

 manv facts on this head. For instance, 

 Solomon (Kings, B. i. ch. x. v. 28) 

 bought horses in Egypt at a high 

 price. 



