\Q THE HORSE FAMILY. 



A mounted specimen of a female of the Wild Mongolian Horse 

 (M. 1012, fig. 14) is exhibited in the Lower Mammal Gallery, 

 and the skeleton of a young stallion is installed in the North Hall, 

 where the two halves of the skull of the mare are also shown. 



Some of the Kirghiz Tarpan lacked the hind chestnuts (which 

 are small in the Wild Mongohan Horse) ; and these structures 

 appear to be constantly lacking in a breed cf small Horses or 

 Ponies ranging from Connemara, the Outer Hebrides, Iceland, 

 and the Faroes to Western Norway. For this breed the name of 

 Celtic Pony, or Celtic Horse {Equus caballus celticus) has been 

 proposed ; but since it has also been regarded as nearly related 

 to the Kirghiz Tarpan "^j it seems doubtful whether it is worthy 

 of racial separation from E. c. przevalskii. The Celtic Pony, 

 or Fjordhest as it is called in Norway, has been described as 

 follows : — 



The ordinary colour is pale buff, but may be mouse-grey, or 

 even brown ; the mane is light-coloured externally, with a central 

 black core, and the tail is also light-coloured with a certain 

 admixture of black hairs. The winter coat is very rough and 

 shao""v with a large forelock and tuft of hair under the lower 

 jaw, and long bushy hair at the root of the tail. The forehead is 

 broad, and the facial portion of the head relatively short ; while 

 the leo-s are relatively slender and the hoofs small. The absence 

 of hind callosities has been already noted. Another feature is the 

 small size or absence of the canine teeth, or tusks, of the 

 stallion. Shetland Ponies, when young, exhibit the same lateral 

 expansion of the hair at the root of the tail. 



Whether the Celtic Pony is a separate race or merely 

 a modified and domesticated Tarpan, there can 

 or Uun lype. ^^ ^^^ question that the dun type, as typified by 

 the Norwegian Dun Pony, is a distinct race. As no particular 

 breed was specified in the original Linnean description of the 

 domesticated Equus caballus as the type of the species, it may 

 perhaps be permissable to regard the Dun Pony of Norway in this 

 light, despite the fact that it has been attempted to give this position 



* Stejneger, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. xlviii, p. 467 

 (1907). 



