INTRODUCTION. 



In prehistoric times wild horses seem to have been as abundant 

 in the south of Europe as are zebras to-day in East Africa. This 

 being the ca«e it is not surprising that all through the historic 

 period it has been assumed by travellers, if not by naturalists, 

 that wild horses still survived. It must be confessed that during 

 the greater part of the nineteenth century believers in the 

 existence of true wild horses could only point to the tarpan of the 

 Russian steppes — a form now known to be a blend of several 

 varieties. But some thirty years ago, when few ever expected to 

 see a genuine true wild horse — a horse with an unbroken line of 

 wild ancestors — it was reported that the Russian traveller Prjeval- 

 sky had discovered a new and quite distinct type of horse in the 

 Great Gobi Desert to the west of Mongolia. 



In 1881 an account of this wild horse, under the name Equus 

 Frjevalskii, was published by Poliakof, and some years later new 

 facts were added to the original description by the brothers Grum- 

 Grjimailo, and more important still, in 1902 a herd of about 

 thirty young Prjevalsky horses reached Europe. Up to the arrival 

 of the living specimens in 1902, English naturalists, with few ex- 

 ceptions, were not prepared to regard Prjevalsky's horse as a valid 

 species. Some said it was a kiang hybrid; others that it was 

 the off-spring of escaped Mongol ponies. The young horses which 

 reached England from Mongolia in 1902 did little to reassure 

 those naturalists who were not yet convinred that Prjevalsky's 

 horse formed a good species. On their arrival, being immature 

 and out of condition, the young colts looked ungainly and lifeless, 

 the large head looked out of proportion to the undeveloped trunk, 

 the coat was ragged, the gait awkward, the mane arched to one 

 side as in hybrids, and the tail suggested a mule more than a 

 horse. It was hence not wonderful that the Prjevalsky colts failed 

 to realize one's conception of a wild horse. It had long been 

 assumed that the wild ancestor of domestic horses, if ever found, 

 would be at least as richly striped as Norwegian and Highland 

 ponies. In this respect also the new species was disappointing ; a 



