THE WILD HORSE. 159 



return, what a true wild species must be like to 

 satisfy the dissentient. In our view, this form of 

 horse is the original eelback dun of the west, and 

 allied to the common Median horse of antiquity; 

 the parent, by gradual subjugation and intermix- 

 ture, of the mouse-coloured and sorrels still common 

 in Lithuania ; and particularly of those breeds that, 

 with the black streak along the back, have cross 

 bars on the joints, and black mane, tail, and fet- 

 locks. * These were the wild and feral horses of 

 Europe, as far as Bessarabia, from the earliest era 

 to the close of the seventeenth century ; and from 

 the facts recorded, we may with some confidence 

 conclude, that farther east, where Europe displays an 

 Asiatic character, becoming more and more, as we 

 advance in that direction, wild and uncultivable, 

 that the appearances of the wild animals, particu- 

 larly the horses, have retained their original nature 

 more and more purely as we recede from the haunts 

 of civilization, showing marks of degeneracy only 

 where the old human migrations have passed, but 



* Rzonozynski compares the Polish wild horses (Kondziki), 

 in size, to the Samogitian (Zmudzincks), mostly with tan or 

 mouse-coloured liveries ; but there being other furs, attests 

 they were mixed in his time. He describes the manners of 

 the stallions, and admits that they can be trained, which, in- 

 deed, is equally true of the zebra and quagga. He relates their 

 extension over the Ukraine, and gradual decrease. See Hist. 

 Nat. Curiosa Regni Poloniae. Sendomir, 1721, p. 217. For 

 several of these authorities we must express our thanks to the 

 Polish Literary Society (of Paris), and in particular to Colonel 

 Lach Szyrma. 



