452 THE MULTIPLE OKIGIN OF HORSES AND PONIES. 



hecMi for untold ages so different from that of the Celtic i)ony 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 

 parts 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 — luc^re 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 nmuerous stripes, are always to be met 

 Avith 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 Norway, the Highlands and islands of 

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

 which, probably as the result of rigid selection, stand apart, all the 

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

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

 than the rest— decidedly differ from E. v. prjeimlskii^ the wild horse 

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

 yellow-dun Celtic pony. 



The most richly strii3ed horses I have hitherto come across occur 

 in the nortliAvest of Scotland. One of these recently examined is 

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

 modified by 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 the twelfth century. 

 As this yellow-dun striped race may A^ery well have been familiar to 

 Linnanis, it may, I think, be taken as the type of the large occidental 

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

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

 " points " and a nearly black mane and tail. The mane is long aiid 

 heavy and tends to fall to ])oth sides of the neck, as in the Celtic 

 pony. Oidy a few liaii-s at the root of the tail are shed in summer, 

 and there i« no attempt to form a tail lock in winter, Avhile the fet- 

 locks, never very long, are limited to the region of the ergots. The 

 forehead is decorated with narroAv stripes, which in their number 

 and arrangement agree more with the mountain than with the true 

 Burchell zebra. A broad dorsal band extends alone: the back to lose 



