COLOUR. 



325 



white of the hairs of a white horse is, on the contrary, 

 a structural colour, similar to that of the white foam of 

 the waves of the sea, or of white clouds. When alluding, 

 for convenience sake, to grey as a colour in horses, we 

 are of course aware that it is not a special colour, but is 

 a mixture of white with chestnut, bay, brown, or black, 

 as we find in nutmeg greys, flea-bitten greys, and iron 

 greys. When the dark constituent of this mixture pre- 

 dominates to a certain though ill-defined extent, the 



I'hoto hii] 



[C. BEID, ^YISIIA\V. 



Fig. 397. — Donkey. 



resulting colour is generally termed red roan, strawberry 

 roan, or blue roan, as the case may be. As a rule, the 

 white colour in a grey or roan horse's coat is due to 

 some of the hairs being white; although occasionally the 

 ends of some of the dark coloured hairs become light 

 coloured with advancing age, especially in the case of 

 young animals which have had one or both parents white 



or grey. 



As regards heredity, the most persistent colours ol 

 the horse are chestnut, bay, brown, and dun. Thus 



