TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



109 



ohliquehj backwards and outwards across the croup, while 

 the two others extend across the rump. In their direction 

 these markings probably diiJered from the stripes on the 

 " hind quarters " of Darwin's colt, from the rump stripes in 

 the common zebra, and, as will appear later, from markings 

 across the croup in Mulatto's second foal. As stripes in 

 the horse have long counted for little or nothing in the 

 struggle for existence, these oblique stripes may not bear 

 any relation to ancestral markings. Although I have 

 never seen transverse markings across the croup and 

 rump of horses — markings such as characterise the 

 common zebra — it does not follow they never exist. It 

 is quite conceivable that in some breeds of horses they are 

 comparatively common. It may be here mentioned that 

 indistinct markings were sometimes present on the hind 

 quarters of the quagga ; that irregularly arranged spots are 

 very common over the hind quarters' of zebra-ass hybrids, 

 and that, as already mentioned, there were at birth spots 

 over the croup and rump of Romulus. These facts point 

 to the croup and rump stripes having been acquired com- 

 paratively late in the zebras, and to their having begun to 

 vanish almost before they were firmly established — before 

 they were sufficiently burned in to persist when neglected 

 by natural selection. On the other hand I have frequently 

 seen a cloudy patch over the croup and rump of bay horses 

 which, seems to indicate that in the horse stripes persisted 

 long over tlie hind quarters. 



Leg Stripes. — I have only now to refer to the striping of 

 the legs. So common are stripes on the legs of horses, that 

 whatever is thought as to the presence of stripes on the 

 face or body, no one seems to doubt that the legs of the 

 ancestors of the horse were provided with numerous trans- 

 verse markings. Leg stripes, more especially in the 

 vicinity of the knee (wrist) and hock (ankle), seem to be 

 nearly as old as the dorsal band. In some yellow and 

 mouse duns I have seen stripes on the fore limb from the 

 fetlock up to within a short distance of the elbow, and 

 on the hind limb a considerable distance above the hock. 



