THE MULTIPLE ORIGIN OF TTOESES AND PONIES." 



By Dr. J. Cossar Ewart, F. R. S. 



Hitherto it has been o-pnorally assumed tliat wild liorses have been 

 long- extinct, that all domestic horses are the descendants of a single 

 wild species, and that, exce})t in size. ))onies in no essential ])oints 

 diti'er from horses. 



Now that systematic attempts are being mad(^ to improve native 

 breeds of horses in various parts of the world, it is obviously desir 

 able to settle once for all whether, as is alleged, occidental as well as 

 oriental and African races and breeds have sprung from the same 

 w ild progenitors, and more especiall^^ if all ponies are merely dwarf 

 specimens of one or more of the recognized domestic breeds of liorses. 



To be in a position to arrive at a conclusion as to the origin of the 

 various kinds of domestic horses, and at the same time find an answer 

 to the important and oft-repeated question. What is a pony? one must 

 clear up as far as possible the later chapters in the history of that 

 section of the Eqnidte to which the true horses belong. 



It is generally admitted that the ancestors of the living Equidse 

 reached the Old World from the New, the later innnigrants crossing 

 by land bridges in the vicinity of Bering Straits. If horses came 

 originally from the New World, to the New World we may turn for 

 information as to their remote progenitors. 



According to recent incpiiries. North America possessed in pre- 

 Glacial times at least nine ])erfectly distinct wild species of Equida'. 

 Some of these were of a consideralile size — e. g., lu/iiifs <<>iii plicdfiis of 

 the southern and middh^ w^estern States, and K. occUhninl ux of C^ali- 

 fornia were as large as a small cart horse. Othei's were iuternuHliate 

 in size — e. g., E. fraternts of the southeastei-n States; and at least 

 one — E. tau of Mexico — was extremely small. Some of the American 

 pre-Glacial Equida^ were characterized by very large heads and short, 

 strong limbs, some by small heads and slender limbs, and although 

 the majority conformed to the true horse type, twd oi- thive wei-e 

 constructed on the lines of asses and zebras. 



« .\bri(iged from Transnctioiis Ilishlniul mikI Ajiricultunil S()<-i<'t.v of Scotland, 

 yol. XVI, 1904. Kcprinlcd. liy iicnnissioii, from Nature I.oiiddii, Ain-il 21. l!Hil. 



437 



