THE MAGAZINE 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



AUGUST 1840. 



Art. I. — -Additional Notices of Species of the Genus Equus. By 

 Edward Blyth, Esq. 



(Vide p. 81 et seq.) 



It did not occur to me when I wrote the paper above re- 

 ferred to, that I had read an elaborate essay by M. Marcel 

 des Serres, on the animals represented in the celebrated Pr^e- 

 nestine mosaic, wherein it is suggested that a second spe- 

 cies of Equus, it would appear, according to the restricted 

 application of this term proposed by Mr. J. E. Gray, that 

 is, as distinguished from Asinus, Gray (constituted by the 

 species with callosities on the fore-limbs only), is indicated 

 upon that antique monument. A translation of this memoir 

 is published in the ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal,' 

 vols. xvi. pp. 160, 205 ; xvii. 268 ; and xviii. 59. 



" Two species of SoUdungula," remarks the author, " are 

 figured upon the mosaic of Palestrina. The first represents 

 the common Horse {Equus caballus, Linn.) • whilst the se- 

 cond, under which is written the name Afvf, seems to be a 

 race which is lost and destroyed [?] . Prior to the epoch of the 

 first ages of the empire, this word would have been written 

 Av^^. The animal to which this name is erroneously attached 

 appears to be a species of Equus, between the Djigguitai 

 and the Quagga. It has nothing in common with the Lynx 

 of the ancients, which was the Loup Cervier [Qy. Felis 

 pardina, Oken, the beautiful Spanish Lynx now living in 

 the Zoological Society's menagerie ?] , as has been well re- 

 marked by Perrault [Mem. de V Acad, des Sc. depuis 1666, 

 jusqu'a 1669, torn, i., prern. part., p. 131.) : the slightest ex- 

 amination, indeed, suffices to show that the animal named 

 Lynx in the mosaic has solid feet, or which terminate in a 

 single hoof, together with the body, head, and tail peculiar 

 to the Horse. In conformity with these characters, then, this 

 Vol. IV.— -No. 44. n. s. 2 z 



