THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF EQUIDJS, 



OR THE 



GENUS EQUUS OF AUTHORS; 



COMPREHENDING 



THE HORSE, THE ASS, THE ZEBRA AND 

 THEIR CONGENERS. 



A HISTORY of the Solipede animals, of the species 

 contained in the Linnsean genus Equus, and more re- 

 cently designated by the appellation of Equidae, would 

 be liable to disappoint a scientific reader if with 

 Zoological views alone, he expected to find in its 

 pages much that was new or unobserved by anterior 

 writers; for, when we consider, that in the genus, 

 two species, the Horse and the Ass, have been the 

 object of the most unremitting attention to man from 

 the beginning of human civilization, that poets, philo- 

 sophers, statesmen, historians, rural-economists, war- 

 riors, hunters, speculators, physiologists and veteri- 

 narians have all objects where the horse at least 

 forms a conspicuous element, that from the inspired 



