THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 199 



structure of the bones of the hind quarters that the 

 principal characteristics of high bred horses are de- 

 tected, and the straight horizontal line of the croup 

 gives those attached to the pelvis greater length, 

 and consequently greater angles ; whence the power 

 of throwing the weight forward is chiefly derived. 

 This explains the cause of the velocity of English 

 thorough bred horses being so superior to those 

 whose croups are round and the tail set on low. 



From the different colours of the original stocks, 

 horses are clothed in a greater diversity of liveries 

 than any other animals, cattle and dogs not ex- 

 cepted; they are a natural consequence of inter- 

 minable crossings of the five great stirpes already 

 mentioned, producing combinations which have 

 caused French and Spanish writers to enumerate 

 above sixty: the piebald and dappled find only 

 their counterparts in the forms and shades of colour 

 in some species of seals, and it is there also we find 

 the light blue greys with brown spots, of which we 

 have examples in the New Forest and in Spain : 

 yet excepting the five primitive, all the rest have a 

 tendency to return to them, and sometimes it would 

 seem capriciously to resume the bay, dun, grey, or 

 black. 



We have seen the Romans believing in the 

 superior advantages of certain coloured horses in 

 hunting each particular kind of game, over others 

 differing in that particular. The Arabs probably 

 had superstitious notions of the same kind, for 

 Mohammed has shown himself a dupe to these 



