IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 465 



In the four regions — Spain, Mexico, Kattywar and Norway — 

 where stripes frequently occur in dun-coloured horses, we were 

 able to make it highly probable that there was a large admixture 

 of North African blood. From this it is clear that stripes are 

 at least as often a concomitant of dark as of dun colour. 



Moreover, if Darwin's hypothesis of a dun-coloured ancestor 

 with stripes is sound, dark colours such as bay and brown must 

 be of more recent origin, and accordingly there ought to be 

 a great readiness on the part of the progeny of a light-coloured 

 animal when mated with a dark to revert to the light. Bub 

 Prof. Ewart's zebra stallion "has never been able to stamp 

 his own peculiar pattern or his own colours on his hybrid 

 offspring. The ground colour has been determined by the 

 dams of the hybrids. The hybrids of the better bred mares 

 are of a bay or chestnut hue — the prevailing colour of Arab 

 foals; the hybrids of the Highland, Shetland, and Iceland 

 mares are of a dun colour, and thus they probably take after 

 the horses that in olden times inhabited the north temperate 

 regions ^" 



There is a general belief that sta)-s and blazes are found 

 amongst all kinds of horses. But we have now seen that 

 (1) the bay horse has come from North Africa, (2) that it is 

 specially prone to stripes on the head, legs, and back, and 

 (3) that it and its derivatives are frequently characterized by 

 having a star or blaze on the forehead and by white ' bracelets ' 

 or ' stockings.' These considerations suggest that the star in 

 the forehead of the Libyan horse corresponds to the light- 

 coloured space included by the central arch in the forehead 

 of the zebra, whilst the white ' stockings ' are an extension of 

 the light-coloured band which intervenes between the hoof 

 and the first dark band on the leg of the Somali and Mountain 

 zebras. But as this tendency to stars and ' stockings ' cor- 

 responding to certain markings in the zebras is characteristic 

 of the Libyan horse, it is another indication that that animal 

 has been differentiated in the same region as the zebras. Of 

 course others would explain the presence of ' stockings ' and 



^ Ewart, Exper. Contr., p. 41. 

 R. H. 30 



