8 THE NATURALIST. 



back ; the ears are very movable, independent of each other, conveying sound with 

 facility from all directions ; their sense of smell is very delicate 5 they sleep little ; in 

 a wild state seldom or never lie down, and consequently have an individual security as 

 well as the collective protection of their gregarious habits ; most, however, prefer moun- 

 tains and rocky regions, and with trifling exception all keep out of cover. 



True horses resist the severest temperature, and can live in the coldest climates that 

 will allow them to find food ; and races or forms of them bear heat with nearly equal 

 facility ; but in the two extremes, somewhat of opposite effects take place j for while 

 in the north, wild horses are not diminished in stature, the domestic become very small ; 

 and in the south, the domestic rise above the common standard, while the so called wild 

 are not more than ten hands, at the shoulders. 



There is a great disparity of intelligence, between all the wild species and the do- 

 mestic horse, whose acts often display faculties nearly as elevated as those of a dog j 

 memory almost as tenacious, and a power of abstraction and comparison, a degree of be- 

 nevolence, and a generosity of disposition which, notwithstanding our common ruthless 

 mode of educating them, often pierces through when least expected. Qualities of so 

 elevated an order appear to be necessarily connected with greater irritability of nerve, 

 and this sensitiveness is manifested in horses more than in other Equidse, their skins suf- 

 fering so much from the stings of flies, that Nature, in order to enable them to have 

 leisure to feed and repose, has furnished their neck with a long mane, and the tail forms 

 a sweeping brush which reaches every part of the body where the head cannot attain j 

 they have moreover a quivering muscular action of the skin which impedes the tor- 

 menting power of insects. 



The period of copulation, the time of gestation, the number of offspring, the years of 

 growth, the conditions of dentition, and the duration of life, are in all nearly alike, or 

 differ only from local causes ; none appear to suffer convulsions from dentition ; all are 

 in disposition gay, sociable, and emulous ; even the ass has the instinct of trying his 

 speed against competitors ; the voice of all is sonorous, loud, but, excepting in the horse, 

 exceedingly disagreeable. 



We divide the Linnsean genus Equus into three sections ; the first contains the Horses 

 properly so called ; the second, the Asinine group ; and the third, the South African 

 striped species. 



THE HORSE. 



EQUUS CABALLUS. 



In this section we place the true horses, wild and domesticated. They are distin- 

 guished by the mane being pendant and the tail furnished with long hair up to the 

 root ; the head is long, the ears short and pointed, the withers somewhat elevated, the 

 shoulder oblique ; they have callosities on the fore-arms and hind-canons; the hoof 

 round .; colors of the hair uniform, or clouded, or with a tendency to dappling ; the 

 voice consists in neighing ; intellectual instinct naturally more developed than in the 

 other species, though no doubt much perfected by long domestication. The wild will 

 be described hereafter. 



