82 A MANUAL OF MENDELISM 



shade approximating to dark chestnut or brown. The 

 first grey hairs usually appear with the casting of the 

 first coat, most conspicuously about the head, and the 

 greying process increases with every new coat, till, 

 in seven or eight years, the body is quite grey and the 

 legs are visibly becoming so. Eventually all is grey, 

 and, if the horse live long enough, white. 



While the data were being collected, it soon became 

 evident that every grey horse must have a grey parent. 

 Some may have two, but all have one. From this it 

 was inferred that grey is dominant to all other colours ; 

 but it was some time before complete proof could be 

 found. The difficulty, because of the very infrequent 

 mating of grey with grey, was to find a grey which 

 was pure. In view of the error of misdescription, two 

 English Thoroughbreds, the Coombe Arabian, with 19 

 grey foals out of 20, and Rib, with 11 out of 12, might 

 have been relied upon, but, as both had been dead 

 a century and a half, the evidence their cases afforded 

 could not be pressed too far. Eventually, however, 

 evidence was found which put the dominance of grey 

 beyond dispute. Mr. Robert Bunsow found that Celle 

 Amurath, a grey Arabian belonging to the Prussian 

 Government, had got 600 foals from mares of all colours, 

 and every one was grey, while Dr. Walther found that 

 a grey sire called Zigeuner had got 13 foals from 

 grey mares and 46 from mares of other colours, and 

 every foal, with the exception of one which died young, 

 was grey. 



The position of dun was still more difficult to decide, 

 for the data were still scantier. Dun was a Thorough- 

 bred colour till about the end of the eighteenth century, 

 and it was found that every early dun in the Stud Book 



