40 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. 



young wild horses in the London Zoological Gardens and 

 Iceland ponies of a like age, Prof. Ewart again resorted to 

 the experimental method. 



To test the first of these assertions he mated his chestnut 

 Mongol pony with a young Connemara stallion ; to test the 

 second he purchased an Iceland mare in foal to an Iceland 

 stallion. " The chestnut Mongol mare produced a foal the 

 image of herself The foal, it is hardly necessary to say, 

 decidedly differs from the Prejvalsky colts recently imported 

 from Central Asia by Mr Hagenbeck, and it decidedly differs 

 from the wild ass hybrids described above. The Iceland foal, 

 notwithstanding the upright mane and the woolly coat, for 

 a time of a nearly uniform white colour, could never be mis- 

 taken for a wild horse, and the older it gets the difference will 

 become accentuated." 



"If the Prejvalsky horse is neither a wild ass-pony mule 

 nor a feral Mongolian pony, and if moreover it is fertile (and 

 its fertility can hardly be questioned), I fail to see how we 

 can escape from the conclusion that it is as deserving as, say, 

 the Kiang to be regarded as a distinct species ^" 



It will be obvious that in view of the facts that the 

 Prejvalsky horses from the two western districts agree in 

 the colour of their legs with the adulterated herds of Tarpans 

 described by Hamilton Smith, while they differ essentially in 

 colour from that of the true Tarpan, and that on the other 

 hand the Prejvalsky horses from the easternmost district 

 correspond accurately to the description of the genuine Tarpan, 

 it would be unwise to maintain that all the Prejvalsky 

 horses imported by Mr Hagenbeck are genuine wild animals 

 unmixed with feral blood, though in view of the evidence 

 which I have set forth one is justified in holding that the 

 Prejvalsky horses from the Zagan-norr Lake are possibly 

 perfectly genuine, and if not absolutely pure from all admixture, 

 at least so little tainted that they practically give us a true 

 picture of the primitive wild stock. Indeed, if they are 

 impregnated with the blood of feral horses, their resemblance 

 to the ass in the absence of the forelock, the upright mane, 



1 op. cit., pp. 467-8. 



