458 THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE [CH. 



crossed Matopo (Fig. 36), a stallion of the Chapman variety of 

 the Burchell zebra, with mares of different kinds and colours as 

 a preliminary, intending after they had foals to put them to 

 ordinary horses. The results of these subsequent matings seem 

 to put it beyond all doubt that there is no sound evidence for 

 Telegony, at least as far as the Equidae are concerned. But 

 the results of the mating of the mares with Matopo are in 

 themselves of the highest interest apart from any question of 

 Telegony. The hybrids, as was to be expected, were striped 

 indeed like zebras, but instead of reproducing the broad charac- 

 teristic markings of the Burchell species, to which their sire 

 belongs, they showed numerous stripes not only narrow like 

 those of the Somali zebra (Fig. 28), but showing the same 

 arrangement, exhibiting on the forehead the round arches seen 

 on the forehead of the Somali zebra instead of the pointed 

 arches of Matopo, and bearing marks on the croup unknown 

 on the Burchell zebra, but peculiar to the Somali and Mountain 

 zebras. The oldest of the hybrids, RomulusS was out of a 

 thirteen hands, black, Island of Rum pony. "The well-bred, 

 nearly black ponies of the Scottish Western Highlands and 

 Islands, which have long been under observation, form a dis- 

 tinct breed, well adapted in many ways for crossing with zebras. 

 Their resemblance to Eastern horses has been accounted for by 

 saying that they have descended from sires which escaped from 

 the ships of the Spanish Armada." But I have shown above 

 (p. 400) that these dark-coloured ponies of the Western Isles 

 and Highlands of Scotland are to be traced back to North 

 Africa through France and Spain from before the Christian ei'a, 

 and their origin is no more to be ascribed to the horses from 

 the Spanish Armada, than are the Connemara ponies to Spanish 

 horses similarly obtained or imported during the Tudor period. 

 "In the plan of his striping Romulus was utterly unlike his 

 sire, and when a careful examination was made it became 

 evident that in the number and arrangement of the markings 

 he was not unlike a Somali zebra." "Instead of the four or 

 five acutely pointed frontal arches of his sire, there are fourteen 



1 Penycuik Exper., pp. 29-33 (figs. 9-11). 



