122 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



shed annually. The mane is darker externally 

 than internally, and the tail is not wholly black. 

 Some Shetland ponies conform to this type, but 

 others are more sturdily built, with little or no 

 tail-pad, and the ergots and hind chestnuts de- 

 veloped ; and much the same may be said of the 

 Connemara ponies. 



As mentioned in the preceding chapter. Pro- 

 fessor Ewart now regards the Celtic pony and the 

 Barb (inclusive of the Arab) as divergent branches 

 of a single primitive European stock. 



To the Celtic type Dr. L, Stejneger^ refers 

 the fjord-hest of Western Norway, which he regards 

 as distinct from the doele-hest, or " valley-horse," of 

 the interior," and as having been probably intro- 

 duced into the country from Scotland. In his 

 opinion the Celtic pony of Connemara and the 

 Scottish Islands, the West Norwegian fjord-hest, 

 and the now extinct Russian tarpan, all belong to 

 the same stock. And he cites the evidence of a 

 Russian naturalist. Professor Tscherski, who states 

 that the hind chestnuts were frequently absent in 

 the Russian tarpan ; he himself adding that the 

 latter resembled the Celtic pony in size and colour, 

 and what is equally to the point, that its skull 



^ Naturen, Bergen, 1904, p. 161, and Smithsonian Miscell. Collec- 

 tions^ vol. xlviii. p. 467, 1907. 



' It is uncertain to which type belongs the horse shown in pi. x. 

 fig. I. 



