96 ZEBRAS, HORSES, AND HYBRIDS 



more about the zebra-hybrids. It is mentioned above 

 that only two out of the eleven which have already been 

 born took strongly after their father. This is no proof 

 that the wilder animal is not prepotent. Recent ex- 

 periments in hybridizing echinoderms, star-fish, sea- 

 urchins, etc., show that the hybrid tends to resemble 

 that species whose germ -cells are most nearly 

 approaching maturity ; and thus the nutrition of the 

 germ-cell is but another thread in that complex tangle 

 of heredity which must not be overlooked in attempting 

 to estimate the part played by prepotency and reversion. 

 Those who have seen the young hybrids playing 

 about in the fields at Penycuik must agree that they 

 are the most charming and compactly built little 

 animals possible ; ' marvellous steeds, striped as a melon 

 is, all black and white,' as the poet has it. Of Romulus, 

 the eldest of the herd, Professor Ewart says : 



'When a few days old [he] was the most attractive little 

 creature I have ever seen. He seemed to combine all the 

 grace and beauty of an antelope and a well-bred Arab foal. . . . 

 What has struck me from the first has been his alertness and 

 the expedition with which he escapes from suspicious or un- 

 familiar objects. When quite young, if caught napping in the 

 paddock, the facility with which he, as it were, rolled on to his 

 feet and darted off was wonderful.' 



The writer can fully confirm all the praise Professor 

 Ewart lavishes on his pets; in truth Romulus has 

 been well described as a ' bonnie colt with rare quality 

 of bone . . . and with the dainty step and dignity of 

 the zebra.' Remus, the offspring of the Irish mare, 

 was from the first more friendly than his half-brother; 

 he objected less to the process of weaning, and 

 promised to be the handsomest and fleetest of the 

 existing hybrids. 



On the whole the hybrids are unusually hardy ; at 

 the time of writing only two have been lost one, a 

 twin, which died almost as soon as it was born, and 



