154 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



ancient blood and breeding, to their extremely old- 

 world air — the tapir in particular having remained 

 in almost the exact form of his ancestors of the 

 Miocene period. The tapir, indeed, may well con- 

 gratulate himself as by far the most old and crusted 

 Tory of the entire animal world, not even excepting 

 the rhinoceros. The Hipparion, or three-toed horse, 

 or its allied forms, appear to be the nearest of these 

 very dim ancestors of the equine group. This 

 animal seems to have been of about the size of an 

 ass, and was distinguished, as may be seen in the 

 work below referred to, by two false toes at the back 

 of the hoof, which in the present representatives of 

 the equine race have long since disappeared. It is 

 curious to note, from the very interesting drawings 

 of Gaudry — reproduced by Sir W. H. Flower in his 

 excellent monograph of The Horse (Modern Science 

 series) — how the toes of the earlier forms of equine 

 ancestry have gradually disappeared. In the Anchi- 

 therium there are only three toes remaining, of 

 which the middle one subsequently became com- 

 pletely specialized -in the hoof of the modern zebra, 

 horse, and ass. In the next stage, in the Hipparion, 

 the middle toe has become still more developed, 

 while the outer digits are visibly dwindling and 

 remain mere false toes, or dew-claws, well up at the 

 back. When the earliest fossil form of horse is 

 examined, these rudimentary toes have clean van- 



