106 TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



agreed in their disposition with those of the Burchell, 

 the mountain, or the Somali zebra. In the yellow-dun 

 Norwegian there is an extremely well developed dorsal 

 band, as distinct and as broad as it crosses the croup as in 

 my Burchell zebra. Darwin says, " I have never heard of 

 either shoulder or leg stripes without the spinal stripe.^'* 

 The spinal stripe or dorsal band, in fact, occurs more or less 

 constantly in all the species and varieties of the horse 

 family. This band and the leg stripes are so common and 

 persistent that it looks as if they had either been estab- 

 lished long before the other stirpes or retained long after 

 the stripes on the face, neck, and body had all but dis- 

 appeared. 



When one looks from a height on the dorsal band of 

 the Norwegian pony, the edges are seen to give off short 

 processes — rudiments of developing stripes or vestiges of 

 dwindling ones, such as are seen in some of the quaggas 

 and in zebra-ass hybrids. Once, and once only, have I 

 seen as many as five distinct stripes extending from the 

 dorsal band across the back. Evidently vertical stripes 

 on the body, as Darwin observed, are extremely rare — 

 almost as rare as on the face. 



But although well-defined stripes are seldom seen on the 

 trunk, obscure delicate lines may often be detected running- 

 down the sides of the body and across the flanks in horses 

 of all breeds and colours. These lines I first noticed last 

 May in a dark yellow-dun Canadian maret — they were 

 gradually revealed as the winter coat was shed. These 

 lines, which vary in width from an eighth to a quarter of 

 an inch, though in most cases difficult to see, are some- 

 times (when lighter in colour than the intervening spaces) 

 quite distinct. Usually they are most evident when the 

 coat is ''staring" slightly. At times, as Mr. Alexander, 

 E.S.A.,t said, they remind one of the lines on a roll of 



* ' Animals and Plants,' vol. i, p. 63. 



t This and another mare Mr. Stewart, cab proprietor, Dean Bridge, 

 Edinburgh, was good enougli to lend me for some weeks last spring. 



X I am not aware of any reference to these lines by recent writers 



