IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 459 



rounded arches, that remind one of the face of a Somali zebra. 

 Instead of twelve cervical stripes as in Matopo, there are in 

 Romulus twenty-four cervical stripes, all of which can be traced 

 into the mane. In having so many cervical stripes he seems to 

 be more primitive than even the Somali zebra (in which I have 

 never seen more than fourteen cervical stripes), but closely 

 agrees with one of my zebra mares, when the shadow stripes 

 are included." Romulus likewise had at birth numerous spots 

 arranged in nearly transverse rows over the loins and rump, 

 which as he grew older united to form somewhat zigzag narrow 

 bands, almost identical in their direction with the narrow 

 stripes over the hind-quarters of the Somali zebras. "Counting 

 from the shoulder stripe to the root of the tail, there are forty- 

 three stripes in the hybrid about the same number as in the 

 Somali zebra." 



Of all the hybrids Remus is most like a zebra. His mother 

 was Biddy, an Irish mare, three-parts bred, in colour bay, with 

 black points and black mane and tail. " Remus's ground colour 

 is light bay, the stripes numerous and distinct, except over 

 the croup which has a mottled appearance are of a dark bay 

 or brown tint. In his hoofs, mane, and tail, and in the body- 

 hair Remus is of all the hybrids most like a zebra 1 ." 



Baron de Parana has made experiments by crossing a zebra 

 stallion of the true Burchell type (Fig. 37), a white-legged 

 variety with distinct shadow stripes, in build not far removed 

 from the extinct quagga (Fig. 88), with South American 

 mares. All the Brazil hybrids out of ordinary mares very 

 closely resemble "Romulus in their markings the legs being 

 well striped, notwithstanding absence of markings on the legs 

 of their sire but they have rounder quarters and are apparently 

 more cob-like in build 2 ." 



It has been commonly held that these hybrids revert in 

 their decoration to a remote common ancestor of the Equidae. 

 But it is also possible, and I venture to think more probable 



1 'Experimental Contributions to the theory of Heredity, Keversion, and 

 Telegony in the Equidae,' Trans. Highland and Agricultural Soc. of Scotland, 

 ser. 5, Vol. xiv. (1902), p. 41. 



2 Ewart, Experimental Contrib., pp. 47-8. 



