12 THE PENYCUIK EXPERIMENTS. 



seems to be set ou the neck in an uncommon fashion, but 

 the neck is somewhat short. In the neck and its relation 

 to the head, in the position and length of the ears, and in 

 the mane, the hybrid undoubtedly approaches more closely 

 to a zebra than a horse. But beyond the root of the neck 

 I fail to observe any essential difference from a half-bred 

 Arab foal occupying an adjacent box. Both the fore and 

 hind quarters are well formed ; the back is short and 

 strong, and the chest is wide and well moulded. In the 

 form of the fore and hind limbs, and in the hoofs, Romulus 

 also resembles in some respects the half-bred Arab, in 

 others his zebra sire ; and his tail, with the exception of 

 several bands at the root and the presence of somewhat 

 stiff hairs, agrees with that of an ordinary foal. As in 

 the zebra, there are rudimentary teats, the chestnuts (warts) 

 are absent in the hind limbs, and further there is no tuft 

 of hair at the fetlocks. A little in front of the upright 

 mane there is a separate tuft of hair as in the zebra, and 

 as in man}^, if not all foals. 



The Colour and Striping of the Eyhrid. — Darwin, who 

 devoted much time to studying the colour of the horse, 

 came to the conclusion that all the existing races had 

 descended from '^ a single dun-coloured, more or less 

 striped, primitive stock, to which our horses occasionally 

 revert.""^ In Dzungaria there appear to be still wild 

 horses, i.e. horses whose ancestors have never been domes- 

 ticated. The wild horses of North America, which are 

 believed to have descended from the Spanish horses of 

 Mexico, were of all colours — black, roan, sorrel, &c. ; but 

 the Dzungaria horses are all of one colour. In summer 

 they are dun or sandy coloured ; in winter light brown. 

 In all probability the Dzungaria wild horse {E. 'przetcalsMi) 

 has not departed greatly in colour from the less remote 

 ancestral horse of the northern hemisphere. The absence 

 of shoulder and leg bands on these wild horses is interesting. 

 We shall never get beyond guessing when the stripes first 

 * ' Animals and Plants,' vol. i, p. 65. 



