448 THE MULTIPLE ORIGIN OP HORSES AND PONIES. 



representatives of which no longer exist? I regard the pony de- 

 scribed above as an almost pure representative of a once widel}^ dis- 

 tributed Avild species, for the following reasons: (1) In its color and 

 markings it is almost identical with Prjevalsky's horse, and not 

 unlike some of the varieties of the wild Asiatic ass. (2) The hind 

 chestnuts and all four ergots are completely absent. (3) The tail lock 

 is perfectly adapted for its work — were the hairs shorter the fringe 

 would be ineffective, were they longer the snow shield, if ever formed, 

 would rapidly disintergate. (4) The first premolars are completely 

 absent, and only one of the four canines is represented, and that only 

 by a minute peg which barely projects beyond the gum. (5) The 

 pony in question proved sterile w^th stallions belonging to five dif- 

 ferent breeds, as well as with a Burchell zebra and a kiang; but she 

 at once bred when mated with a yellow-dun Connemara-Welsh pony, 

 which closely approximates to the Celtic type. (6) Ponies having 

 the more striking Celtic characteristics occur in isolated and outlying 

 areas, where one would expect to find remnants of an ancient highlj' 

 specialized species which perchance reached the Old World from the 

 New in pre-Glacial times or during warm inter-Glacial periods — in, 

 e. g., Iceland (which has been almost completel}^ isolated since the 

 twelfth or thirteenth century), the Faroe Islands, Shetland, the 

 Hebrides, the west of Ireland, and Finland. 



Flat-nosed variety of the Celtic pony. — In the Faroes, the Hebrides, 

 and in Shetland there are slender-limbed ponies which, except in 

 their color and the shape of the head, and in some cases the form of 

 the hind quarters, closely agree with my t3'pical Celtic pony. In 

 these ponies the depression below the eyes is more pronounced, and 

 extends well-nigh to the muzzle, which is nearly flat. The nostrils 

 look downward, and the space between them, instead of being arched, 

 as in the Iceland specimen, is flat, and forms nearly a right angle 

 with the face. 



Some of these flat-nosed ponies are of a foxy red color, others are 

 dark brown. According to Landt, the majority of the Faroe ponies 

 a century ago were foxy red — the St. Kilda ponies, 18 in all, seen by 

 Martin at the end of the seventeenth century, were also of a red 

 color — the others were with few exceptions dark. A foxy red Faroe 

 pouy in my possession has neither dorsal band nor bars on the leg, 

 l)ut it has a light mane and tail, a nearly straight croup, and well 

 formed hind quarters. All the other foxy red Faroe ponies I have 

 seen or heard of closely resemble the one in my collection. 



The dark Faroe ponies, like the dark Barra ponies, only differ from 

 the foxy red ponies in not having in every case a straight croup and 

 a high set -on tail, while the dark variety of the Celtic pony found in 

 Shetland is in build more like the typical Iceland specimens than the 

 Faroe variety. 



