470 



THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 



[CH. 



had found a similar depression in the skull of ' an Indian 

 domesticated horse ' and also in that of Bend Or, had sug- 

 gested that the 'blood-horse,' unlike the 'cold-blooded' horse 

 of Western Europe, may possibly have been the descendant 

 of E. sivalensis. As these pages are passing through the press 

 Mr Lydekker announces^ that he and Dr Ray Lankester have 

 found that a like depression occurs not only in the skulls of 

 the racers Bend Or and Stockwell, but also in those of Eclipse, 

 Orlando, and Hermit, as well as in that of an Arab horse, and 

 that "at present they fail to detect it in any of the ordinary 

 English and Continental horses. It appears to be also lacking 

 in horse-skulls from the drift and turbary of Europe. On the 

 other hand it exists, in a less rudimentary condition, in the 

 fossil horses of India," and Mr Lydekker repeats his suggestion 

 that the ' blood-horse ' is of Indian origin. But I have already 

 shown (p. 143) that it is most unlikely that ' the Indian 

 domesticated horse ' on whose skull Mr Lydekker's argument 

 depends was of pure Indian or Asiatic origin, since all Indian 

 country-bred horses are saturated with so-called Arab blood, 

 and accordingly this skull cannot be taken as a link between 

 E. sivalensis and the Arab. On the other hand we have seen 

 that Hipparion was common in Europe and Africa, that 

 E. stenonis (a species closely related to E. sivalensis), which 

 is found both in Europe and Northern Africa, had a deep 

 pre-orbital depression, and that its later ally, E. quaggoides, 

 had a similar feature, that Mr Lydekker himself (following 

 Dr Forsyth Major) has pointed out the existence of this 

 depression in the now extinct quagga, and also in the skull of 

 an ass, and that Mr Pocock (p. 76) has shown a similar 

 depression in the skull of a male Grant's zebra. Now as all 

 the living Equidae which show this feature and whose origin is 

 known — the quagga, Grant's zebra, and the ass (Nubian) — are 

 African species or subspecies, the occurrence of such a character- 

 istic in any of the living Equidae is a prima facie indication 

 that it is African in origin. But as Mr Lydekker and Dr Ray 

 Lankester have now shown that such a depression occurs in all 



^ Times, 14 February, 1905. 



