HOW THE TROTTING HORSE IS BRED. 46? 



blood are Arabian; and they are fine specimens of that breed; but both in their 

 color and in the hair of their manes they have a striking resemblance to the- 

 quagga. Their color is bay, marked more or less like the quagga, in a darker 

 tint. Both are distinguished by the dark line along the ridge of the back, the 

 dark stripes across the forehand, and the dark bars across the back part of the 

 legs. The stripes acioss the forehand of the colt are confined to the withers 

 and the part of the neck next to them. Those on the filly cover nearly the 

 whole of the neck and the back as far as the flanks. The color of her coat 

 on the neck adjoining the mane is pale, and approaching a dun, rendering the 

 stripes there more conspicuous than those on the colt. The same pale tint ap- 

 pears in a less degree on the rump; and in this circumstance of the dun tint 

 also she resembles the quagga. 



"The colt and filly were taken up from grass for my inspection, and owing 

 to the present state of their coats I could not ascertain whether they bear any 

 indications of spots on the rump, the dark pasterns, or the narrow strips on 

 tbe forehead, with which the quagga is marked. They have no appearance of 

 the dark lines along the belly or the white tufts on the side of the mane. 

 Both their manes are black; that of the filly is short and stiff, and stands up- 

 right; and Sir Gore Ousley's stud groom alleged it never was otherwise; that 

 of the colt is long, but so stiff as to arch upward, and to hang clear of the 

 side of the neck, in which circumstance it resembles that of a hybrid. This is 

 the more remarkable, as the mane of the Arabian breed hangs lank and closer 

 to the neck than those of most others. The bars across the legs, both of the 

 hybrid and of the colt and filly, are more strongly defined and darker than those 

 on the legs of the quagga, which are very slightly marked; and though the 

 hybrid has several quagga marks which the colt and filly have not, yet the 

 most striking, namely, the stripes on the forehand, are fewer and less appar- 

 ent than those on the colt and filly. These circumstances may appear singu- 

 lar, but I think you will agree with me that they are trifles compared with the 

 extraordinary fact of so many striking features which do not belong to the 

 dam, being in two successive instances communicated through her to the pro- 

 geny not only of another sire, who also had them not, but to a sire probably 

 of another species; for such we have very strong reasons for supposing the 

 quagga to be " 



This is Lord Morton's original quagga story without abridge- 

 ment, the substance of which has been quoted and printed mil- 

 lions of times, but I never have seen anything like an analysis of 

 it, either for or against its value as determining any fact or prin- 

 ciple in breeding. The elements are: a young chestnut mare, 

 "seven-eighths Arabian blood," was bred to a quagga and pro- 

 duced a hybrid. She was afterward bred to a black "Arabian" 

 and produced a colt and a filly that were supposed to be marked 

 like the quagga; hence, first impregnations influence all subse- 

 quent foals; and hence "the heredity of influence," as called by 

 some scientists. Lord Morton has given an intelligent and, no- 



