18 HORSE AXD MAX. 



the purest lineage are apt to produce young which 

 can hardly be distinguished from ' the semi-wild 

 rabbits of our warrens. In point of size, the beauti- 

 ful little pony ' Lady Jumbo,' which was exhibited in 

 1882, afforded a good example of the primitive horse. 

 When shown at Islington she was only thirty inches 

 in height, and was brought from the London Bridge 

 Station to Islington inside a four-wheel cab. 



Sometimes a horse is born with three toes on one 

 foot. In the autumn of 1883, while staying in Boston, 

 Mass., I saw a horse with eight hoofs, the second 

 (i.e. the fore-finger) phalanges being almost as perfectly 

 developed as the third and fourth. The supplemen- 

 tary hoof, although it did not quite reach the ground, 

 was nearly as large as the actual hoof. Unfortunately 

 — so are we swayed by custom — the owner had shod 

 all the hoofs alike, a piece of barbarism which I lost 

 no time in denouncing. 



Now we will turn to the hind limbs Here we 

 find almost a repetition of the fore limbs, but the 

 joints are differently arranged. 



Instead of the blade bone there is the hip bone, 

 or ' pelvis,' marked o in the illustration. 



Then comes the thigh bone [femur) in place of 

 the humerus. Here, again, a long and slender thigh 

 bone would be a source of weakness to the animal, 



