50 



Colour Inheritance in Horses 



the other has very light, ahnost white, mane and tail, and no black on 

 the feet. The light t3'pe is sometimes described as cream-coloured. 

 That the two are related the pedigree given here indicates, though 

 just what the relation is does not appear. 



Lumping all duns together and adding my figures to Wilson's give 

 the following as the result of mating duns to various colours. 



Wilson gives a case of gray to gray producing dun, and the above 

 pedigree shows three gray mares which carried a dun factor. Therefore, 

 assuming that there i.s a single dun factor and making no attempt to 

 exi^lain the differences among the duns, we should agree with Wilson 

 in placing the colour between bay and brown on the one hand and 

 gray on the other. But such an assumption is rather hazardous as the 

 case stands now, and I should not like to make any generalizations 

 about dun until more evidence is at hand. 



Mr W. P. Newell has supplied me with information about an 

 interesting family of white horses. The ordinarj' white horse is of 

 course merely an old faded-out gray, but this is a family of real 

 whites. Mr Newell gave Professor W. E. Castle some information 

 about these horses, on the basis of which Professor Castle considered 

 the colour to be an extreme spotted condition dominant to the ordinary 

 colours^ I have now some further information, which makes the case 

 an interesting one. These horses are said to be somewhat variable in 

 colour. To use my informant's words: "The colour of skin is white 

 or so-called pink, usually with a few small dark specks in skin. Some 

 have a great many dark spots in skin. Tliese latter usually have a few 

 dark .stripes in hoofs ; otherwise the hoofs are almost invariably white. 

 Those that do not have dark specks in skin usually have glass or watch 

 eyes, otherwise dark eyes.. ..I have one colt coming one year old that 

 is pure white, not a coloured speck on him, not a coloured hair on 

 him, and with glass eyes." The term " glass eye " means a white eye. 

 Therefore the colt described above is almost an albino in appearance. 



1 Breeder's Gazette, Lix. 15, 1911, p. 948. 



