456 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. 



the specimens is very uncertain (p. 34), we cannot venture to 

 say whether such markings are primitive in the stock or due to 

 crossing with feral horses. On the other hand stripes are rare 

 in cart-horses, which, as we know, are chiefly sprung from the 

 old coarse, thick-set horses of Asia and Europe. 



We must, therefore, conclude that such stripings are in 

 a special degree characteristic of the Libyan horse and his 

 derivatives, and are not equally common in all breeds of horses. 

 But as manifold striping is especiall}" characteristic of the 

 Equidae of Africa, we may not unreasonably infer that the 

 ancestors of the Libyan horse had long lived in Africa. 



Prof. Ewart^ has pointed out that in " highly bred foals 

 with very fine coats there are often at birth across the sides 

 and croup, and especially in the vicinity of the flank feather, 

 naiTOw markings that might be mistaken for stripes. These 

 markings are caused by the hair being arranged in well-marked 

 tracks or ridges, separated by almost hairless spaces. In these 

 tracks, which were very distinct at birth in a cinnamon-coloured 

 foal I bred this year, out of a bay half-Arab mare — the sire 

 was a chestnut thoroughbi'ed horse — we have, it may be, a 

 restoration for a time of an ancestral condition. Sometimes 

 along with these hair-tracks or ridges there are faint stripes, 

 seen only in certain lights, but evidently in part due to subtle 

 colouring. Stripes of this nature I noticed plentifully scattered 

 over a reddish-grey foal out of my flea-bitten New Forest pony 

 by the grey Arab Benazrek. More common and more evident 

 are comparatively broad wavy bands often seen across the croup 

 and on the brow of half-bred bay foals. These bands may 

 occupy the position of ancestral stripes — stripes out of which 

 the colour has been completely washed since they ceased to 

 count in the struggle for existence." Ewart based his sup- 

 position on the fact that " they occupy the position of stripes 

 in a yellow-dun Norwegian pony, and of the stripes over the 

 croup of one of Lady Meux's [zebra] hybrids (p. 463), which 

 may have been inherited either from the American trotting 

 horse or from a remote common ancestor." 



1 Penycuik Experiments, pp. Ixxvi-vii. 



