174 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



displaced. The fighting is done mainly with the 

 tusks, and front to front, not with the heels. Thus 

 the most active and strongest males are constantly 

 selected naturally for the continuation of the herds." 



In most parts of America the feral horses 

 appear to have no special difficulty in defending 

 themselves from the attacks of predatory carnivora, 

 such as jaguars, pumas, lynxes, wolves, coyotes, 

 and bears. The case is, however, different in 

 certain parts of Patagonia, where pumas are so 

 numerous that wild horses seem unable to exist. 

 It has accordingly been suggested by Mr. W. H. 

 Hudson that these carnivores were the cause of the 

 extermination of the indigenous American repre- 

 sentatives of the equine family. The suggestion, 

 however, was made at a time when the possibility 

 of extermination being frequently due to bacterial 

 agencies was not generally recognised. 



The following extracts from a letter published 

 by Professor Ridgeway ^ afford valuable informa- 

 tion with regard to feral horses in Australia : — 

 " Wild horses have been running in the mountain- 

 ous country of East Gippsland, in which are the 

 sources of the Buchan River, and through which 

 flow the Snowy River and its tributary the Deddik. 

 To this I must add the dividing range from Omeo 

 to Mount Kosciusko. These wild horses probably 

 date back in places to a time antecedent to the 



' The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 431. 



