THE PONIES OF CONNEMARA. 335 



Iceland, and Norwegian ponies, and of various other breeds until recent 

 times common in the more isolated portions of Great Britain and Ireland. 



One of these stunted or dwarfed horses is represented in Fig. 5. It in no 

 way either resembles a Barb or an Arab ; but in the short neck,* small 

 head, stout limbs, and relatively great girth, it strongly suggests a cart 

 horse, of the Clydesdale rather than of the Shire breed. 



The pony in Fig. 5 is a yellow dun from Iceland, measuring 48 inches 

 (12 hands) at the withers, and 49 inches at the croup, with a girth of 62 

 inches. From the elbow to the ground it measures 28 inches, from the 

 hock to the ground 17 j^ inches, and below the knee, 6^-^ inches. The head, 

 however, is short (18 inches from the occipital ridge to a Hne connecting the 

 upper margin of the nostrils), and the ears measured along their inner sur- 

 face are only 5 inches. Between the eyes the distance is 6 inches. As it 

 happens the viean of the measurements of this pony and of a 14-hands 

 Barb very closely agree with the measurements given above of the yellow 

 dun Connemara pony. It may hence, I think, be tal<en for granted that the 

 Andalusian-like " Hobbies " of Connemara are not stunted Spanish horses, 

 but the result of a more or less perfect blending of the aboriginal West of 

 Ireland ponies with horses introduced from the East during the mediaeval 

 times, or from Spain during the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. 



That the ancestors of all the recent Equid<r. (Horses, Zebras, and Asses) 

 were of a yellowish dun colour, and more or less richly striped is extremely 

 probable.! On the other hand, it is unlikely the foreign horses introduced 

 into the West of Ireland, either during the present or earlier centuries, were 

 of a dun colour,^ and though it is true that some of the descendants of the 

 horses introduced by the Spaniards into America are duns (Fig. 4), it is more 

 likely that the prevalence of yellow ponies in the West of Ireland is due to 

 the majority of the aboriginal horses being of a dun colour, and, like some of 

 the Iceland ponies of to-day, sufficiently prepotent to hand on their coloura- 

 tion to the majority (or to a very considerable proportion) of their descend- 

 ants. 



It may be added that the yellow dun-coloured Connemara ponies are 

 highly prized in some districts, not only because they are hardy and easily 

 kept, but also because in staying power and vitality they are more like 

 mules than pure bred horses. Of the ponies built on the lines of the three 

 represented (Figs. 1-3) only a remnant seems to be left, and I was informed 

 that all the survivors at present in Connemara are mares. Two of the three 

 ponies figured have had foals ; but neither the foal (Fig. 2) said to be by a 



* In mammals there is usually an intimate relation between the length of the neck and the 

 weight of the head. In the elephant, e.g., in which the head is huge, that the trunk and tusks 

 may be effectively wielded, the neck is extremely short — relatively shorter than in any other 

 land mammal. In the same way in the Imperial Zebra of Somaliland, in which the head is of 

 great length, the neck is also short. The long neck in the Eastern and other horses is mainly 

 a product of artificial selection. It has been made possible by a shortening and lightening of 

 the jaws, and in some cases an increase in the length of the spines of the dorsal vertebrae in 

 the region of the withers. In areas where, during part of the year, the food of wild or semi- 

 wild horses consists of coarse hard material, only those provided with powerful jaws can 

 survive, but where all the year round the food is comparatively soft and easily obtained the 

 necessity for a long head and a short thick neck does not exist. In this way we may account 

 for some of the Norwegian ponies having long coarse heads, while the Iceland ponies (where 

 fish takes the place of coarse dry herbage and woody fibres during winter) have generally small 

 well-moulded heads. 



tSf£— " The Penicuik Experiments," by J. C. Ewart. A. & C. Black, 1899. 



X In Southern Europe, as in Arabia, there seems to have long been a prejudice against dun- 

 coloured horses. 



