INTERESTING FEATURES IN HORSES, ETC. 177 



One would not suspect that the Horse came under the same 

 category, but I have seen a dark-bay Horse which had a semi-circle 

 below the eyes, and a spot above them, both of a tan colour, 

 and quite distinct from the general colour of the face. All 

 these seem to be no other than vestiges of ancestral circles 

 round the eyes, contrasted with the general colour by a different 

 pigment, and in all probability derived from the cause I have 

 hinted, viz., early loss of armour round the eye, to admit of 

 closure of the eyelids for the protection of the delicate structures 

 of the eye. 



It must be obvious that in the transition of sea-animals without 

 eyelids, to land animals which moved about in dense forests, it was 

 of importance for them to acquire an unarmoured circle round the 

 eye, and the faculty of closing their eyelids to protect the cornea 

 from injury ; and especially at night it was of importance that 

 long hairs should grow on the unarmoured circle round the eye 

 such as we see in the white-tailed Gnu, to warn them of the vicinity 

 of a branch, or a leaf, or other object, before the surface of the 

 cornea came in contact with it, and thus enable them to close the 

 eyelids in time. 



And so of the other parts in which mobility was of great 

 importance the hands and feet, the base of the ears, the lips and 

 the vent. In some specimens of heads of the Black Buck which I 

 have seen, there was a distinct white circle round the base of the 

 ears. A large number of dark-coloured Horses and Asses have a 

 light-coloured mouth. The Cyprian wild Sheep 1 has a fine and 

 striking white muzzle, beautifully contrasted with the dark face. 

 Who would have thought that the origin of this white muzzle was, 

 in all probability, the unarmoured muzzle of some animal not 

 unlike a Pangolin ? All the coloration of this Sheep is indicative 



1 Royal Nattiral History, vol. ii. p. 225. 

 M 



