THE ONE BIG DIGIT OF THE HORSE 267 



Horse, as I shall show and its congeners have the metacarpal 

 and metatarsal bones fused into one ' cannon } bone, while the 

 phalangeal portions are separate. We know also that the Horse 

 sometimes reproduces the separation of the phalangeal portions in 

 what is commonly called the cloven-foot or Cow-foot. It is true 

 that in ruminants the cannon-bone has usually a groove which 

 indicates the fusion of two separate bones ancestrally, as shown in 

 Fig. 90 (c) ; but the abnormal Cow-foot of (b] shows a similar 

 groove in the lower portion of the homologous bone. 



In support of the suspicion that the Horse's one big digit may 

 possibly be a fusion of the two digits of an Ox-like ancestor, I 

 shall now mention certain other features which are common to 

 certain ruminants and also to Horses. 



(a) In another place I have mentioned that the Horse has 

 frequently a white blaze, and white hands and feet. These features 

 are almost exactly matched in the African Antelope (Damalis 

 Pycarga}, the Bonte Bok. 



(U] The maculations of the Giraffe would appear to be fusions 

 of maculations similar to those of the Horse ; but the maculations 

 of the Zebu of Fig. 58 scarcely admit of a doubt that the 

 markings of the Zebu and those of the Horse of Fig. 36 are 

 identical. 



(c) The brindled Gnu is striped much like a Zebra, and their 

 manes are very similar. Moreover, I have often seen Horses faintly 

 brindled on the neck almost exactly like the brindled Gnu. Then 

 the Gnu's tail is more like that of a Horse than that of other 

 ruminants. On one occasion I was watching the white-tailed 

 Gnus in the Zoological Gardens. One of them pretended to shy 

 at nothing, just as a young Horse often does. 



So that in the Gnu we seem to have an intermediate form between 

 the Horse and other ruminants. It has a short mane, like that of 



