262 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



herds of considerable size— sometimes, it is said, 400 strong. The 

 young and weak males remain with but a scanty or even uo following. 

 The stallion has to maintain his supremacy by frequent combats, which 

 especially occur at certain seasons of the year. Youatt mentions 

 frequent combats between different herds, but the general evidence 

 tends only to the occurrence of contests for supremacy between 

 different stallious. The animals are suspicious in the extreme, swift 

 of flight, but bold in defence with tooth and heel in emergency. 

 They range extensively in search of pasture and water, and whom 

 hard pressed by danger or famine, the herds break up. It is said 

 that each troop has a leader and implicitly obeys him, he is the first 

 to face danger and to give the hint to fly ; when hard pressed, the 

 horses form a riug, with the mares and foals in the centre, and 

 defend themselves vigorously with their heels, or they close in on 

 their opponont in a dense mass and trample him to death. A 

 favourite proceeding of these animals seems to be the tempting of 

 domesticated horses to join them, a source of much annoyance to 

 breeders in Australia, as also is the invasion of their runs by wild 

 Btallions, which vitiate select breeds in a most annoying manner. 

 "Wild horses are sagacious in avoiding sportsmen, keen of scent, and 

 vigilant. Many wild horses in America are found with saddle marks, 

 and I have seen the skull of an unfortunate individual with each 

 side of the lower jaw almost cut through by pressure from a halter 

 which he wore when as a youngster he escaped from captivity. 



With regard to shape, it is much to be regretted that from Job 

 even unto Byron,- our authors and travellers have thought advisable 

 to view the horse in a state of nature from the poetic rather thau 

 from the practical side. We have very few '' horsemen's descriptions'* 

 of these animals in so far as I can learn, and the pictures given ua 

 are either over-artistic, evidently taken from stuffed specimens or 

 not reliable. The brumbies are described by Anthony Trollope as 

 "perfect marvels of ugliness," and elsewhere we are told that they 

 are small, hardy and remarkable for the excellence of their feet 

 but seldom worth the trouble of capture and training. The picture 

 before us of the wild horse of Tartary looks like that of a youngster. 

 Its most striking features are a most ugly head, with coarse Roman 

 nose and convex forehead, short muzzle, little cranium ; head badly 

 set on, no shoulder, deficiency of barrel, ugly quarters, round short 

 hocks, upright pasterns, and great length below the knees and hocks. 

 To counteract these bad points there is power in the quarters, arms, 



