INHERITANCE IN RAGE HORSES 83 



pedigrees, while the other interpretations leave them 

 without coherency or relationship. 



We will deal with Mr. B. Robertson's view 

 first. He is an anthority upon race-horses, and he 

 thinks that the grey colour of " Posturaus " came 

 through his sire '* St. Simon " from the distant 

 ancestry of the mare "(rrey AVilkes." He 

 believes that there is fair proof for this statement 

 in the fact that other horses not coming from 

 " St. Simon," but having " Grey Wilkes " in their 

 pedigree, show grey hairs in their coat, or at the 

 root of the tail. In my opinion this view is not 

 tenable, because " Grey Wilkes " lived in 1707, two 

 hundred years before " Postnmus," and her name 

 appears only in the fourteenth remove of " St. 

 Simon's" pedigree. It is possible, of course, that 

 some posterity of " Grey Wilkes " may show some 

 grey hairs, but " Postumus " is another case 

 altogether, for it is a good and complete grey colt, 

 and not a brown or bay, with a patch of grey. 



A very prevalent idea among horse breeders 

 with regard to cases like " Postumus " is that its 

 grey coat colour is the result of the " nicking " or 

 meeting in his sire " St. Simon " of two grey stems, 

 which can be traced down on either side of its 

 pedigree. Upon the basis of this hypothesis, the 

 greyness of " Postumus " will be traced (Plate 1) 

 on the dam's side through " Pontillon," "Maid of 

 Wye," " Vedette," and " Mrs. Ridgway " to " Nan 

 Darell,"* and also upon the sire's side through 

 ''Vedette " and "Mrs Ridgway " to " Nan Darell." 



* Nan Darell is a grey mare and is outside the pedigree on the 

 dam's side of it. 



