270 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



Mongolian breed had ver}' early in the history of the 

 domestication of tlie horse been crossed with another 

 breed, of which tlie Arab, Barb and Turk are the 

 descendants. The original wild stock of the Arab or 

 southern horse and its relations is at prese::! unknown, 

 l^rof. Ridgeway believes that there must have been a 

 breed of wild horses in North Africa on the plains of 

 Lybya from which the southern breeds may have 

 descended and he calls what is generally known 

 as the southern type the " Libyan horse.'^ Mr. 

 Lydekker inclines to the belief that the southern 

 type is related to the fossil horse of India — Equus 

 sivalensis. There can be no doubt that a swifter 

 and more graceful form of horse has been frequently 

 imported into Europe to improve the existing breed, 

 and that it belongs to a distinct race from the 

 northern horse can be shown by a comparison of the 

 skulls and hj other characteristic differences. 



The skull of the Arab horse invariably shows a 

 depression in front of the eye, which is believed to 

 represent the depression for the tear-gland present 

 in deer and antelopes. As mentioned above, there 

 is no sign of this depression in the skulls of the 

 Mongolian and Cave horses. It is interesting to 

 note that the skulls of many of the more highly 

 bred European horses, known to have Arab or Barb 

 blood in their veins, such as the English " thorough- 

 bred^^ and the old English black or shire horse, all 

 show this depression in front of the ej^e-socket. 

 Further, the facial contour of the Arab horse is 

 sinuous, while the northern horse is hammer-headed 

 and the facial outline has a tendency to convexity. 



