274 Inquiries as to Changes in Domestic Animal? 



sight. Where they are only now and then assembled for to 

 prevent their becoming entirely wild, as well as for the 

 purpose of ridding them of the larvae of the Oestri, and of 

 marking the foals with a hot iron, as is the case in the halos 

 of the ilanos, the color becomes uniform chesnut. In the 

 small halos that occur on the platforms of the Cordillera, the 

 effects of domestication are more perceptible ; the colors of 

 the horses are there more varied : there is there more differ- 

 ence in their size, that is to say, there are many among them 

 smaller, and some a little larger ; their hair, so long as they 

 live in the fields, is pretty long and tufted, but a few months 

 rubbing is sufficient to render it short and glossy. When a 

 horse is brought from the ilanos of San Martin, or Casauare, 

 to the platforms of Bogota, it must be kept in the stable un- 

 til it becomes habituated to the climate, for if let loose at 

 first, into the fields, it falls off, is covered with scabs, and 

 often dies in a few months. The pace which is preferred in 

 saddle horses, is the amble and le pas releve. They are 

 trained to them at an early age, and when ridden are careful- 

 ly prevented from using any other pace. At the end of a 

 certain time, the legs of these commonly s'engorgent ; then, 

 if they are of a fine form, they are kept in the hatos as stal- 

 lions. There results from this, a race in which the amble is 

 the natural pace in the adult. 



Dogs were introduced and employed by Columbus, in his 

 wars with the natives, and in his first battle with the Indians, 

 he had twenty blood-hounds. Their race has been preserved 

 without apparent alteration, on the platform of Santa Fe, 

 where they are employed for hunting deer. Amongst the 

 poor inhabitants of the banks of the Magdalina, the dog has 

 become deteriorated, partly by mixture and partly by the 

 want of sufficient food. 



The cat has undergone no perceptible change in America, 

 excepting that it has ceased to have any more particular 

 season of love in the year than another. 



The sheep which was carried from Spain, is not of the 

 Merino breed, but of the kind called de lana burda y Castra. 

 It is very common on the Cordillera, from the height of 1000 

 m. to 25,000 m. It nowhere endeavours to escape from the 

 protection of man, nor has any change taken place in its 

 manners; the only difference exhibited by it, being a slight 

 diminution of size. Within the limits stated, it propagates 

 easily, but in warmer countries, as in the plains of Meta, it 

 is difficult to rear. In the valley which separates the eastern 

 from the middle chain of the Cordillaras, there are some seen, 

 in a few places, but always in small numbers, the females be- 

 ing unprolific, and the lambs difficult to bring up. The wool 

 on these lambs grows much in the same manner as on those of 



