KINDS OF HORSES 



by the fact that it is now, and has been since at latest 

 the year 1878, extinct. Before considering the onager, 

 it will be useful to enquire how far asses are to be dis- 

 tinguished from horses. To differentiate the domestic 

 horse from its brother in harness is easy for the most 

 un-zoological of observers. But Prjewalski's wild 

 " horse," and the Celtic pony, land us in difficulties. 

 The wild horse has a donkey's tail for part of the year 

 and the typical horse's tail haired up to the root for the 

 rest of the season. The Celtic pony has the single pair 

 of " chestnuts," only those of the fore limbs, which 

 otherwise distinguish horses from asses ; for in the 

 domestic horse and in Prjewalski's there are also chest- 

 nuts on the hind limbs. Furthermore, we cannot regard 

 striping as an exclusive possession of the donkey tribe, 

 for traces of cross bars appear again and again in the 

 most flagrantly domestic of horses, especially after 

 crossing has had its influence. The onager is very 

 generally, if not absolutely invariably, to be viewed at 

 the Zoo, and a handsome beast it is. It is no use, as a 

 rule, to satisfy oneself concerning the appearance of 

 some rare beast by the observation of stuffed specimens 

 only. A stuffed animal is, especially was in past days, 

 apt to be as like its living descendants as the self- 

 made man is to the Apollo of Belvidere or to the Faun 

 of Praxiteles. 



Its hues are of the desert, and it shares them with the 

 jerboa and the lion. It may be observed incidentally 

 that popular notions of a desert, derived in all proba- 

 bility from illustrated Bibles, of the kind that come out 

 in sixpenny parts, would define it as a tract of particu- 

 larly yellow sand with an oasis in the foreground and 

 a clump of Arabs in the middle distance. Deserts are 

 not all of this plan of coloration. Mr. Scott Elliot has 

 figured an African " desert " which presents the appear- 

 ance of a charming English woodland scene, not remark - 



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