452 THE MULTIPLE OEIGIN OF HOKSES AND PONIES. 



l>een for untold ages so different from that of the Celtic pony and the 

 wild horse that it centuries ago acquired the rank of a distinct species, 

 or at least a well-marked natural variety. 



The question now arises: Does there exist in any of the outlying 

 ]:)arts of the world (where artificial selection has been made use of to 

 conserve old rather than to create new types) horses of a red rather 

 than of a yellow-dun color — more like the red deer than the kiang — 

 horses with a sufficient number of imperfect stripes on the body and 

 bars on the legs to indicate descent from ancestors decorated after the 

 manner of the mountain zebra? As is now generally known, dun- 

 colored horses with remnai>ts of a striped coat now and again make 

 their appearance in all parts of both the old and new worlds. It is 

 also a matter of common knowledge that dark yellow-dun horses, 

 sometimes with fragments of numerous stripes, are alwaj^s to be met 

 with in, among other places, Mongolia, Tibet, the northwest provinces 

 of India (especially in the State of Kattiawar), and in the northwest 

 of Europe, more especially in Norwa}^, the Highlands and islands of 

 Scotland, and in Iceland. With the exception of the Kattiawars, 

 which, pi'obal)ly as the result of rigid selection, stand apart, all the 

 others have many points in common — some of the dun Mongol ponies 

 agreeing closely witli Norwegians ; but they all — the Kattiawars more 

 than the rest— decidedly differ from E. c prjcvalskii, the wild horse 

 of the Great Altai Mountains, and from typical specimens of the light 

 yellow-duD Celtic pony. 



The most richly striped horses I have hitherto come across occur 

 in the I'lorthwest of Scotland. One of these recently examined is 

 alike in make, color, and markings so unique, and looks so little 

 modified l)y domestication and artificial selection, that it must, I 

 think, be considered as a fairly typical specimen of a once wild 

 species. The history of the yellow-dun striped race, to which the 

 specimen alluded to belongs, has not yet been written, but there is 

 little doubt that it was introduced into Scotland from Scandinavia 

 about the end of the eleventh or beginning of tlie twelfth century. 

 As this yellow-dun striped race ma}^ ver}^ well lun^e been familiar to 

 LinnaMis, it may, I think, be taken as the ty])e of the large occidental 

 breeds, and known as the Equus eahallus typicus. A typical speci- 

 men of the Norse variety is of a darlv yellow-dun color, with black 

 "points'' and a nearly bln<'l< mane and tail. The mane is long aiid 

 heav}^ and tends to fall to both sides of the neck, as in the C^eltic 

 ])ony. Only a few hairs at the root of the tail are shed in sunnnei-, 

 and there is no attem])t to form a tail lock in winter, while the fet- 

 locks, never very long, ai-e limited to the region of the ergots. The 

 forehead is decorated with narrow stripes, which in their number 

 and arrangement agivc more witli tb(> mountain than with the true 

 liurchell zebra. A broad dorsal band extends alonir the back to lose 



