THE PEXYCUIK EXPERIMENTS. 131 



in Nyassaland — into the second species, the mountain zebra, once com- 

 mon in South Africa. The third species is the Grevy's zebra of Shoa 

 and Somaliland; it is probably this species which attracted so much at- 

 tention in the Koman amphitheaters during the third century of our 

 era. A pair of Somali zebras has recently been presented to the queen 

 by the Emperor Menelik, and is now lodged in the Zoological Gardens, 

 Kegent's Park. The species measures about fifteen hands high, is pro- 

 fusely striped, and stands well apart from the other two groups. It is 

 important to note that, in Professor Ewart's opinion, it is the most 

 primitive of all the existing striped horses. 



There is no direct evidence that the ancestors of horses were striped. 

 Certain observers think that some of the scratches on the lifelike 

 etchings on bone, left us by our palaeolithic cave-dwelling ancestors, 

 indicate such stripes, but little reliance can be placed on this. On the 

 other hand, there is much indirect evidence. Every one who has an 

 eye for a horse, and who has traveled in Norway, is sure to have noticed 

 the stripings, often quite conspicuous, on the dun-colored Norwegian 

 ponies. Colonel Poole assured Darwin that the Kattiawar horses had 

 frequently "stripes on the cheeks and sides of the nose." Breeders are 

 well aware that foals are often born with stripes, usually on the shoul- 

 ders or legs, less frequently on the face. Such stripes, as a rule, disappear 

 as the colt grows up, but can often be detected in later life for a short 

 time after the coat has been shed; they are sometimes only visible in 

 certain lights, and then produce somewhat the same impression as a 

 watered silk. From the facts that more or less striped horses are found 

 all over the Old World; that in Mexico and other parts of America 

 the descendants of horses which were introduced by the Spaniards and 

 which afterward ran wild are frequently dun-colored and show stripes; 

 that foals are frequently striped; and that mules not uncommonly have 

 leg and shoulder stripes, the inference is largely justified that the 

 ancestors of all our horses were striped. 



We now pass to the experiments made at Penycuik in crossing the 

 zebra Matopo with various mares of different breeds: 1. Matopo was 

 first mated with Mulatto, one of Lord Arthur Cecil's black West High- 

 land ponies. The result was the hybrid Eomulus (see p. 132), which on 

 the whole, both in mental disposition and bodily form, takes more after 

 his father than hi? mother. Hi? striping is even more marked than that 

 of his sire. He has a semi-erect mane which has been shed annually. 

 The pattern of the markings, on both body and face, resembles the 

 stripes on a Somali zebra — which, as we have seen, is regarded by Pro- 

 fessor Ewart as the most primitive type — more than they resemble that 

 of any of Burchell's zebras. The profuse striping is a point of difference 

 between this hybrid and Lord Morton's. The quagga-hybrid was less 

 striped than many dun-colored horses. 



