440 



THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 



[CH. 



and the width of the black stripes on the neck and shoulder 

 concomitantly with their suppression on the body, the result 

 being a chestnut or bay-coloured animal with narrow black 

 stripes on its fore-parts " ; in the case of Grey's quagga 

 (and the Elgin specimen) by an increase in the width and 

 brownness of the stripes, followed by their fusion and loss of 

 definition on the body, the result being a ruddy-brown animal 

 marked with narrow pale bands (the interspaces) upon the 

 head, neck, and shoulder, as in the Elgin specimen here 

 figured. 



Now as the Libyan horse makes its first appearance 

 amongst the nomadic tribes of Libya whose territories were 

 about lat. 32° N. it is fair to suggest that similar conditions of 

 climate and food and a like need of a protective colour suited 

 for life in open plains had produced the bay colour in both the 

 quagga and Libyan horse. It will also be remembered that 

 the quagga closely resembled the horse in the character of its 

 tail. It has likewise been shown that the feral horses of North 

 America sprung from Spanish horses chiefly from Northern 

 Spain after three centuries wore liveries of black, grey, roan, 

 roan pied with dun, and dun frequently with dorsal stripes 

 derived from their cross-bred ancestors, the dun with stripes 

 not being a reversion to a primal ancestor, but simply the coat 

 inherited from the dun-coloured striped horses of the sierras of 

 Spain. 



The swiftest horse known in Homeric days was a bay with 

 a star in his forehead ; in Greek classical times, the dark horses 

 of Libya were the swiftest known and the same horses bore 

 away the palm from all others in the Roman circus in the first 

 century of our era ; and the Saracens, so soon as they got 

 possession of these horses, became the swiftest riders in the 

 world, and the best Anazah horses of the present day are bay 

 with a star in the forehead and 'bracelets.' If then it could 

 be shown that in a definite series of cases where very well 

 bred, but not quite pure-bred, horses have been bred solely 

 with a view to speed, the increase of speed in the stock has 

 been -steadily accompanied with the gradual disappearance of 

 all other colours except bay (or chestnut), we should get a 



