THE MULTIPLE ORIGIN OF IIOKSES AND PONIES." 



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



Hitluu'to it has been o-enerally assuiiied that wihl liorses have been 

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

 wild species, and that, except in size, ponies in no essential points 

 (litter from horses. 



Now that systematic attempts are being made 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 

 wild progenitors, and more especially if all ponies are merely dwarf 

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



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 Equidse to which the true horses belong. 



It is generally admitted that the ancestors of the living Equidae 

 reached the Old World from the New, the later immigrants 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 

 infoi-mation as to their remote progenitors. 



According to recent inquiries. North America possessed in pre- 

 Glacial times at least nine perfectly distinct wild species of Equidfe. 

 Some of these were of a considerable size— e. g., Equns eomplieatux of 

 the southern and middle western States, and E. oecidentaJus of Cali- 

 fornia were as large as a small cart horse. Others were intermediate 

 ill size — e. g., E. fraternis of the southeastern States; and at least 

 one — E. fan 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, two or three were 

 constructed on the lines of asses and zebras. 



a Abridged from Transactions Highland and Agricultiu-al Society of Scotland, 

 Vol. XVI, 1904. Rei>rinte(l. iiy itcrniisslon, from Nature. London, Api'il 21, l'.»(i4. 



437 



