GENERAL INTEODUCTION. Ixxiii 



uew foal is ridiculously like her dam ; the yellowish-brown 

 patches occupy the same positions, and are of nearly the 

 same shape and relatively of the same size^ — even the mane, 

 forelock, and tail agi-ee in their colouring. In make and 

 in gait, as well as in colour, the foal is her mother's own 

 daughter, — the bay Shetland sire has apparently counted 

 for nothing. It may be said that for two reasons evidence 

 of " infection," even if there is such a thing, could not 

 be looked for in the subsequent foals of the Iceland pony. 

 In the first place she had a foal before she was put to the 

 zebra, and in the next place she is evidently prepotent. 

 If only the first sire is capable of '' infecting," then the 

 Iceland pony is not a suitable subject for such an experi- 

 ment, but believers in telegony are not all at one on this 

 point ; in many of the alleged cases of telegony the infec- 

 tion is said to have been caused by the second or third 

 mate. There can be little doubt that Tundra is inbred, 

 at least as contrasted with many other ponies. Judging 

 by her first foal being bay, she would not be considered 

 inbred in Iceland, but in all probability the Iceland ponies 

 are, on an average, more inbred than ordinary Shetland 

 or Highland ponies. They have been long isolated on a 

 small remote island, into which comparatively little new 

 blood has, as far as I can learn, been recently introduced. 

 On the other hand, had Tundra's last foal given distinct 

 signs of infection, it would have aiforded very strong 

 evidence indeed in favour of telegony. But I may 

 explain I selected Tundra not only to apply a severe test, 

 but also because I wished to experiment with a mare 

 which had already produced unstriped offspring, and 

 because I was anxious to see whether a mare more than 

 two thirds white would throw a lighter coloured hybrid 

 than a black or bay mare. As already stated, the light 

 colour of the mare counted for just as little as the light 

 colour of the zebra ; the hybrid is extremely dark, partly, 

 doubtless, because the dam has descended from dark 

 mouse-coloured ancestors, and partly because zebras are 

 unable to transmit to hybrids their recently acquired light 

 ground colour. 



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