18 THE HORSE FAMILY. 



to the infusion of Arab blood. Much the same may be affirmed 

 with regard to the bending down of the face on the basal axis of 

 the skull. 



In a publication recently issued by the Philomathic Society of 

 Alsace-Lorraine * Dr. Max Hilzheimer gives an illustrated 

 description of a remarkable and apparently ancient breed of 

 horse to be met with in the neighbourhood of Schlettstadt, in 

 Upper Alsace^ where it is locally known as Riedpferd (Reed 

 Horse) or Pickerle. Small in stature^ and of all colours except 

 grey, it frequently shows a dark dorsal stripe^ while in one foal 

 the last remnant of a transverse shoulder-stripe was observed, 

 such a vestige being sometimes noticeable in the Wild Mongolian 

 Horse. In its large and clumsy head, with a broad forehead, and 

 a tendency to a concavity in a profile near the base of ihe nasal 

 bones, the Schlettstadt Horse likewise approaches the wild race, 

 as it also does in its short ears and low withers. On the other 

 hand, in its profuse mane and tail it makes an equally wide 

 departure from the latter, although there is every probability 

 that these features are the result of domestication. Dr. Hilzheimer 

 refers to an account by Elisseus Rosslin, in a work on Alsace- 

 Loraine, published at Strassburg in 1593^ of so-called Wild 

 Horses inhabiting the mountains of the Black Forest. These are 

 known to have survived till 1616, when three were shot during 

 a hunt. Although these so-called Wild Horses were probably 

 the descendants of domesticated animals they were doubtless a 

 primitive type, from which, in Dr. Hilzheimer's opinion the 

 Schlettstadt breed may be descended. A further inference is 

 that in the latter we have survivors of the Wild Horse of the 

 Swiss lake-dwellings and of the cave period. 



The Southern The Southern or Barb type [Equus caballus asiaticus, 



or or E. c. libijcus), as represented by Barbs, Arabs, 



Barb Type. Thoroughbreds, etc., constitutes the fourth and last 



well-defined group of Horses. In this breed, as we now know it, 



bay with black '^points,^^ and not unfrequently a white star on 



* Mitteil. Philom. Ges. Ehass-Lothrinyen, vol. iii, p. 868, 1906. 



