94 ZEBRAS, HORSES, AND HYBRIDS 



perfect bassets both in shape and coloration. This 

 indicates that one way to rejuvenate the racehorse 

 would be to have recourse to a new importation of 

 the best Arab mares that the plains of Arabia can 

 produce. Breeders hesitate to adopt this course, 

 because their present breed is not only larger, but, 

 over very short distances, fleeter than its forefathers. 

 The shortening of the course in recent years is 

 probably a further sign of the degeneracy of our 

 present racers. Were new blood introduced, and 

 more three- or four-mile races instituted, we should 

 doubtless soon have a return to the champion form 

 of bygone days. Another method would be to import 

 some of the racers of Australia or New Zealand, 

 and cross them with the home product. Different 

 surroundings, food, etc., soon influence the consti- 

 tution, and this being so, it would be advisable 

 to select those horses of pure descent which have 

 been longest subjected to these altered conditions. 

 Thus the chance of reversion occurring would be 

 increased. v ; 



It has been noticed more than once in the preced- 

 ing pages that a young animal showing reversion 

 is strong and vigorous. It is the belief of dog- 

 breeders that those members of an inbred litter which 

 show reversion are the strongest and best. Similarly, 

 experience shows that if an inbred sire and dam pro- 

 duce a dun -coloured striped foal it almost always 

 turns out well. Reversion is accompanied by a re- 

 juvenescence ; it is as though the young animal had 

 appeared at an earlier period in the life-history of the 

 race, before the race had undergone those changes in 

 the way of deterioration which so often accompany 

 inbreeding. 



Wild animals are frequently thought to be pre- 

 potent over tame ones, but of the eleven zebra-hybrids 

 bred at Penycuik only two took markedly after their 



